[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by Royle9

Even Strength Line Combinations - ENTIRE SEASON -
(Not 1 of these line combo's is as bad as sames HIGHEST)
76.8% HYMAN,ZACH - MATTHEWS,AUSTON - NYLANDER,WILLIAM
10.3% KADRI,NAZEM - KOMAROV,LEO - NYLANDER,WILLIAM
4.8% HYMAN,ZACH - MARLEAU,PATRICK - NYLANDER,WILLIAM
4.7% HYMAN,ZACH - MARNER,MITCHELL - NYLANDER,WILLIAM
3.4%BOZAK,TYLER - NYLANDER,WILLIAM - VAN RIEMSDYK,JAMES

WHERE IS THE 4th LINE? The above are the pairings he played last season, all stats from every game. Sure they may have called it a "4th line" in a newspaper clipping but do any of the guys above look like 4th liners when compared to what the flames hail as 4th liners? Brouwer, Hathaway, Chiasson, Lazar, Stajan etc??



.59 pace? Was that in the 22 game season? He never played a full season before Mathew's was drafted. Look at his linemates during that season:

53.7% HYMAN,ZACH - NYLANDER,WILLIAM - PARENTEAU,PIERRE
14.5% HYMAN,ZACH - KAPANEN,KASPERI - NYLANDER,WILLIAM
Parenteau had 41pts in 71 games

"even if the majority of the time he plays with Matthews" - Do you realize what you're saying? You cannot for a second compare Nylander playing alongside Matthews basically 80% of his career to Bennett not putting up points playing with career 3rd/4th line players. There's no "EVEN IF Bennett" because he's never been given 80% playing time with our top 2 STARS.

Matthew's is a generational hyped player, there is no comparable. I would bet $ on Sam putting up 50pts if he played along side Matthew's for 80% of his first 2 seasons including top line PP time on a PP with success.

Let's circle back to "if Sam could put up anything"
Bennett had a .67 PPG in 2015-16, what does that basically equate to partner? The fact you're using "basically equates" as leverage for "fact" should discredit you alone.

See the difference is I'm not putting too much emphasis on Sam's linemates because he's had garbage for the majority of his "3" year career thus far, playing 2 of those under a coach who gave him a very short leash and saddled him with veteran plugs for the majority of the time. I'm not making this up, the statistics show it, I'm simply bringing visibility to the claims people are making here.


How many Flames forward looked "fantastic" to you this season?
Johnny - Sure
Sean - Sure
Ferland - Sure the first half, 2nd half he fell back to reality
Tkachuk - Half decent, he played his ROLE well
Backlund - Underperformed
Frolik - Underperformed
Brouwer - disaster
Stajan - servicable
Lazar - disaster
Hathaway - should never see any time outside of 4th line 13F playing time.
Jankowski - Inconsistent
Bennett - Inconsistent

Bennett and Jankowski looked basically similar, except Jankowski is 2 years older and was given 5 more years of development time VS Bennett thrown into the NHL immediately.

I'm not saying Sam turns into a 60pt ALLSTAR, I'm not selling him as the next best forward the Flames will have 2018/19. Because I dont know
What I do know is Sam has yet to be given the tools needed to succeed thus far in his short career. Perhaps its too late, hockey is a mental game and there's a chance he'll never turnout because he was rushed. But nobody here today can say 100% fact that Sam will NEVER be good even if he's given top 6 time because nobody has seen what he can do in that position thus far.

Its like me saying Bingo wont be a good a making hockey sticks. I have no clue, I haven't seen him make one, I don't know if hes been trained properly, I don't know if anyone's shown him the craft thus far and given him the tools needed to build one. But there are some of you who would say today that he cant because he he's built chairs before and his chair measurements are terrible compared to everyone else yet he's never been given the proper tools to build chairs.

Like I said, you're paying way too much attention to quality of linemates. Your point doesn't even hold weight because Sam Bennett's best stretch in December came with Hathaway on his line who you're crapping on. His stints with the best forwards on this team in Gaudreau and Monahan have been extremely underwhelming which is the reason why he isn't playing on the top line. Don't you think if there was any type of chemistry at all that Bennett would have been a permanent fixture?

William Nylander obviously has played most of his career with Matthews and there's definite success between the 2. But if you look at his numbers without Matthews in the line up, he's no slouch with 24 points in 42 games. Any way you slice it, he and Ehlers have been considerable better than Sam Bennett thus far into their careers and they've played their way higher up in the lineup whereas Sam has done the opposite. He hasn't earned any right to play more minutes.

Also, you want to talk about discrediting someone? Do your math again. Bennett's ppg in 15-16 was was 0.47, not 0.67. Get your facts straight before you try to discredit someone else "partner."

At the end of the day, all I hear from the Sam Bennett apologists is excuses. You're blaming everyone else for Bennett's failures except for the person who's most responsible, Sam Bennett. He's got a lot to work on this summer if he ever wants to be an impact top 6 forward and he better figure it out quick because he's starting to get passed by fellow 2014 draftees like Kevin Fiala, Alex Tuch, Nick Schmaltz, Danton Heinen, Adrian Kempe, Kevin Lebanc and etc.