Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
It's funny to go back and read the first 30-40 pages of this thread.
Pretty much consensus that the Flames got a good return for Bennett.
Then Bennett started hot in Florida and all the complaints started.
And it's fair to complain about how he was leveraged in his time in Calgary, but really it's funny because without the benefit of hindsight the resounding thought was it was a good deal for Calgary.
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I don't know that there are really mutually exclusive ideas here.
Given the way everything played out from draft day 2014 to April 12, 2021, we can recognize that it was a pretty good return and reasonable enough resolution to a tough situation.
It's also reasonable to rue how things played out, especially from ~2017-2020. How things have played out for Sam since leaving certainly exacerbates those feelings.
Though I'd argue that even if he had flamed out in Florida (and any subsequent stops), it wouldn't totally invalidate the idea that he was mishandled here (at least to some extent) - ie. there was probably a path for Yakupov to be a useful (albeit underwhelming) NHL player with a different first 4 years...
It was even reasonable to have hope going in to the start of the 2021 season after another promising playoff performance by Sam, but those hopes evaporated pretty quickly after another start in the bottom 6 blender (mostly on Backlund's wing in the first 6 games before trade request - while Simon and Leivo got fairly long looks on the top-line)...pretty tough to see much of a realistic chance to salvage things beyond that given his contract status and the ED.