Quote:
Originally Posted by AC
@WesGilbertson
RE #Flames decision to play Mark Jankowski tonight in Toronto. The Maple Leafs have Matthews, Tavares and last change. You can't have a winger centring your fourth line in that sort of scenario, methinks.
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I don’t really get why the organization refuses to try Bennett at C.
How detrimental can he be as the #4C?
He already takes the most draws for the line, and Rieder and Jankowski are constantly healthy scratches.
Bennett has been so unproductive as a winger since his rookie year I just don’t see how it could be any worse than having Janko/Rieder centre the line.
Play him there for 5 games:
Gaudreau-Monahan-Backlund
Tkachuk-Lindholm-Mangiapane
Lucic-Ryan-Dube
Rieder-Bennett-Rinaldo
He succeeded as a centre in junior and was ranked #1 overall in the draft rankings.
Year one get him acclimatized by playing LW with Backlund and Frolik - he gets 18G, 18A.
The following years throw him all around the lineup as a LWer and RWer primarily playing with bottom 6 bums instead of putting him in a similar situation, as a 2nd line LWer, or putting him as #3C..
I know a lot of the struggles rest on Bennett’s shoulders but man why not do a bit better job developing him for frigg sakes.
Now you watch him play he isn’t even moving his feet at all times, hounding on the puck like he used to.
He’s just gotten so stale here it’s a travesty to watch.
Put Backlund on the wing and to fill the gap throw Rieder in as the 4th line centre but Benny can take the draws.. like wtf?