QOTD: Where would Bennett have gone in the draft with a healthy shoulder?

[Bingo]

With Bennett tearing up the OHL right now it had me thinking. If Bennett had a healthy shoulder last season (pull ups aside), how much better would his draft year have gone?

Would he have gone higher in the draft? Challenged Reinhart and Ekblad? Or just moved past Draisaitl to the Oilers?

Did the Flames get the best player in the draft due to an undisclosed injury?

[You Need a Thneed]

The Flames have gotten the best player in the draft two years in a row.

[Samuelsson]

I think still 4th. That draft seemed very much like the players taken were who their respective teams wanted, not so much BPA.

[PeteMoss]

Ekblad should have gone #1 no matter what. Bennett should have gone ahead of Draisaitl not matter what (picking a guy because he's bigger is a typical terrible GM move). Reinhart and Bennett could have gone either way.

[Poe969]

I voted 1 but I meant to vote 2. Bennett is the best forward from the draft but Ekblad is a beast and Florida would have picked him regardless.

[Lil Pedro]

Still 4th because MacTavish and co are useless!

[Robbob]

I think Fla still takes a dman. Buffalo takes him if he was healthy.

[Vinny01]

We heard about Ekblad years before he was drafted (as someone who does not follow Jr hockey) but I really only learned about Sam in his draft year. I think he swaps spots with Reinhart in the draft order. The only guy the Oil may have taken over Leon is Ekblad

[codynw]

He would have slid out of the first round. Teams would be afraid that he'd be too good.

[RyZ]

I don't think he would have moved. Ekblad was going to go first regardless and Reinhart has been a well known elite player for his age for years, putting up big numbers in the WHL for 2 years even before his draft year. He was the only forward from the age group that made team Canada WJC team and was a known quantity for some time longer than Bennett has been. Oilers wanted the bigger, thicker C in Draisaitl, so Bennet goes at 4 either way IMO.

Remember, Reinhart and Draisaitl put up 15 more points than Bennett in the draft year so they certainly weren't slouches either. If a healthy shoulder would have added 20-30 points to Bennetts total, maybe he moves up but I'm not sure that is really the case here.

[Cflames_12.5]

4th

[saillias]

Still would've gone 4th, Murray was known for being in love with Reinhart and Edmonton with Draisaitl.

And you can't really quantify how much the shoulder injury actually affected his game considering he was ready to play through it again in 2014-2015

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

The only place he could have moved to was 3rd. Reinhart and Ekblad were rightly going 1-2 regardless. And since his injury status probably wasn't the decider on Mactavish's crush on Leon, it wouldn't have bumped him to 3.

[loob job]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

The Flames have gotten the best player in the draft two years in a row.

Disagree there, if the Avs offered the Flames Mackinnon for Monahan straight up I'd take it in a second. And nothing wrong with having a close second to Mackinnon in that draft when picking sixth.

[Parallex]

Hard to say. We don't know how much it affected him in the season (if at all)... I don't think he would have gone 1st, I think that was always going to be Ekblad and I don't think he would have gone third because Oilers were no good and were picking size over talent. So it comes down either to 2nd or to 4th. Bennett was the Sam that I wanted most so I'll say 2nd.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

The Flames have gotten the best player in the draft two years in a row.

This is clearly crazy in respect of the Mackinnon draft, but just with respect to last year, do people really think that if the draft were done again today the top 5 would go significantly differently? I don't, aside from maybe Dal Colle swapping for Nylander or Ehlers.

[the_only_turek_fan]

Edmonton is going to regret not taking Bennett.

[DropIt]

4th

[FlameZilla]

1st: hard to pass on a monster RH offensive D man. Ekblad is looking like the real deal & a good pick.

2nd: it was always going to be Sam vs Sam here. I firmly believe Bennett would have been the better choice, but I thank my lucky stars the Sabres didn't see it that way. Reinhart will be good a good 2-way player, but he doesn't look like a game-breaker to me.

3rd: Oilers desperately wanted Monahan in 2013, so they drafted a similar prospect with their 2014 pick. Looked NHL ready, has NHL size and plays a position the team needed to shore up. I'm sure Draisaitl will be a decent player, but Bennett provides something they lack up Highway 2: desire.

4th: if Bennett had been selected earlier I would have been very happy with the other Sam. We massively lucked-out with Bennett, but it's about time something worked out in the franchise's favour.

[Locke]

I said 2 because the Panthers needed a Dman and Ekblad and Bennett probably would have been a 1/2 saw-off so it would default to organizational need.

I think Bennett is better than Reinhart and easily better than Draisaitl.