The part that makes me laugh most about Bennett is that there weren't this many vocal supporters when he was here.
There were a handful of posters that would talk about how he was misused during his time as a Flames player while he was here or that his underlying numbers showed potential (GranteedEV, Dammage, ComixZone, myself, sure there were a couple others too) but for the most part people really didn't see much him in. This was especially the case by the time 18-19 and 19-20 had rolled around.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinny01
Has there a player who disappointed here and then became the player everyone hoped they would become the minute they put on a new jersey?
- Highest pick in franchise history
- only flashes of greatness here
- gets traded and becomes a top 6 forward on a team that has quickly become one of the elites in the league.
With Iggy everyone knew the time to move on had arrived. Hamilton returned 2 of the Flames best players today and the team had a 20+ point improvement from 10th in the West to 1st.
Easy to see why Bennett’s performance has been a big point of discussion here. Especially as we now have a coach who likely could have got through to him, and he fits a big need on the roster currently as Backlund, Monahan, Dube have proved incapable of being a reliable second line C this season
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Funny part is the closest comparable I can think of plays for the Flames: Elias Lindholm.
Lindholm was actually much better for Carolina than Bennett was for the Flames (Lindholm had 4 straight 40 point seasons), but a similar outcome where he was disappointing for the team that drafted him with a top 5 pick, and then got traded to another team where he immediately played well.
And honestly that's the craziest thing with Bennett too. It's not like he went there and took 10 games to adjust with Coach Q, or find chemistry with players.
Verhaeghe got hurt on April 10th which caused the Panthers to break up the Barkov-Duclair-Verhaeghe line that had worked well. The Panthers traded for Bennett on April 12th, and he stepped in right away and played amazing with 3 goals and 5 points in his first 3 games on the line with Huberdeau and Duclair.
Kind of funny too because Verhaeghe is similar in that he wasn't great in Tampa, went to Florida and is now a legitimate top 6 forward (probably even playing better than Bennett).