Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
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.
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).
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Your post kind of contrasts the big difference between the way the Flames and Panthers are built. How is it that cast offs like Verhaeghe, Bennett and especially Duclair are doing so well with Panthers when they struggled so mightily previously? Heck, didn’t Duclair get famously crushed by Torts? Something to the tune of “he doesn’t know how to play hockey?” And this a Stanley Cup winning, 2-time Jack Adams award winner who said this.
I think it just underlines how important it is to build a deep, strong core in the NHL. Florida has that and the Flames do not. When you add good players to a great core built with great players, winning happens. Conversely, when you only sign complimentary players and add them to an average core built with mostly average players, it’s funny how often that recipe fails. It probably explains why there are always so many bad contracts and buyouts in this league.