IMO it could be compared to Conroy, though he was obviously not a high draft pick. Stuck behind a bunch of Cs in St. Louis and not looking like a future piece, but he had skills enough to be a 30-40 point guy there. Moved to Calgary and clicked with more ice time and a great player. Boom - 75 points.
You’d never say Conroy wasn’t a good player - he was. But sometimes you need the right situation. It may never have been replicated in St. Louis and similarly IMO it’s not worth fretting about what Bennett may or may not have done here. At the time, there was just zero chance Bennett was going to be centre for Gaudreau, which is the only similar position to what he has now. He wasn’t displacing either Monahan earlier or Lindholm later. No coach, not even Sutter, was going to do that, just to experiment. And just being moved and the motivation that comes with that could easily have played a part. Both wanting to make a big impression with the new team and not wanting to blow a new opportunity.
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