Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
No one “gave” Monahan and Backlund “elite possession wingers”. They earned them. And when they were played with them, it worked. It’s not hard to figure out. Coaches stick with success.
Half of the Bennett defenders were irate he wasn’t put at centre by Hartley. Half of them were mad he wasn’t put on the wing with Monahan and Gaudreau.
They tried to grow Bennett with another first rounder, Jankowski. That’s not an abnormal call. They tried him as well with some guys who’d scored in the past. Brouwer, Neal, Jagr, Lucic. What he didn’t get was minutes. That’s probably a bigger argument about his development IMO.
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Did Bennett ‘earn’ time with Huberdeau? Quenneville, one of the best coaches of the past few decades, put him there without ever having him on his team. Why didn’t Q put Bennett with Lomberg and make him earn his way up?
As for the bolded, it’s a massive indictment on the Flames that they did not recognize what kinds of players Jankowski and Bennett are and tried to groom Bennett on the wing of a fourth liner. And I feel like I don’t really have to say much about the wingers that ‘scored before,’ if you don’t think that putting him with Brouwer and Neal were detrimental to his development I’m not sure what else there is to say. Btw it’s also a huge indictment on BT that those were the best wingers he could summon with his 5 mil AAV contracts