Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
I really value size in a lineup. Trying to get size + skill is incredibly difficult, right? You normally have to draft in the top 5, or at least 10, especially as a center. I have said this over and over - compete really closes the gap. Bennett isn't undersized at all, but he isn't a huge guy. He plays very physical, and to have this in your top 6 is very helpful, and difficult to find.
Anyway, we can argue about what happened to Bennett in Calgary. I am just happy to hear that the current GM stated that Bennnett should have been given more opportunity here, and that not everything is fair, and that sometimes a young player just needs more runway, deserved or not. When you think of it this way, it is practically absurd that the Flames invested a 4th round pick's value into him, but didn't invest the time and patience necessary to develop it (didn't put him at center, and developed him, accepted the growing pains there). Florida did, and they got the pay-off. To me, it is that simple.
Bennett in Calgary became a player who didn't have confidence in himself any longer, and the coaching staff didn't have confidence in himself either. It should have never gotten that way, but I also do think that under Sutter, he probably would have experienced a turn-around here. He was a complete Sutter-type of player, after all.
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Bennett was gritty but not really a Sutter ideal player. Sutter likes checkers. He loved guys like Backlund and Toffoli who check up and down the ice (listen to him talk about checking versus hitting). And he hated penalty takers.
But Sutter may have improved Bennett’s play in that area, and Bennett may have had a big turnaround here - who knows. It may have happened under Huska, who seems to bring out the best in a lot of players.