The Legend of Sam Bennett

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Only one member of that regime moved to Toronto. The rest - Edwards, Maloney, Conroy, Pascal - are still running the team. Dan Edwards and Marty Gelinas, who were in charge of player development during Bennett’s time with the club, are still here too.

Yeah sure. But the GM runs the ship and I was considering it as shaping the regime. Tre always said the buck stopped with him.

Obviously Conroy is still here and obviously he doesn’t run things the way Tre did

Whatever. Now Tre is ruining Toronto, that is the point

Trading their first round draft picks for nothing, signing Ryan Reaves, walking Marner to FA, stripping Tavares of the C and seeing him outperform Matthews

What a #### show

It’s fun to watch

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe

He really is this generation's Claude Lemieux - just not even as close to being the rat/dirtbag he was. Just brings it every single playoffs.


I am really curious how big his next deal is. I guess we will see in a couple of months.

I was going to mention the same thing.

The interesting part is he's totally useless to a team that is borderline making the playoffs, or likely to be a low seed.

The amount of teams that should be willing to pony up big $ for him should be limited (if GMs can help themselves) and I'm not sure how many of those have the cap room to bring his payday.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by dino7c

It has to be said he was available for MONTHS and not one NHL GM thought he would be worth a 1st, even a late one.

The entire league saw him as meh...two seconds was the high water offer. Not the opposite will happen when he is overpaid big time.

If he plays a big role in beating the Oilers twice though? Well worth it, not even kidding

The expansion draft compromises this notion of 'free market value'. Only a few teams could take on Bennett without impacting their protection list

[Calgary4LIfe]

Craig Conroy essentially said that Bennett should have gotten more opportunity in Calgary. I think the "it wouldn't have worked out here" line is lazy to be honest, or at best not a well thought-out argument. Why wouldn't it work out here? It definitely did start to look like it was working out here for him under Darryl, and even Bennett stated as much. Why wasn't Bennett put into a position to succeed? Why did it work in Florida? How can the Flames avoid making this same mistake in the future?


Every team misidentifies talent at one point or another. Every team screws up a player's development every now and then. Flames have done this a few times now, and I am sure that if you go around the league, most teams have examples. It doesn't make it ok. Nobody blinked an eye when St. Louis left. That was a huge miss. Button had misidentified Savard and prioritized coaching ahead of Savard, and that was a miss. It cost the Flames a cup - most of the '04 team with Savard + Iginla = cup. Yeah, butterfly effect, so who really knows - it is a what-if game, but definitely one that makes you think. There are other examples too of course (and as I said, I am sure every team screws up in this manner every so often, so this isn't some shot at the Flames).



My point with Bennett - and I was not happy to see him go in that trade - was that he was never really given the runway. I felt the only coach to really put him in a position to succeed here was Hartley, but once he got canned, that was it. Gulutzan came in and the 'growing pains' were no longer tolerated. Ditto for Peters and Ward. None of these were quality coaches, but Bennett was a 4th overall pick. The Flames invested a LOT by drafting him, but then stopped prioritizing his development. Not all prospects develop the same way, and it can be very unfair. I just think it was a mistake to not prioritize his development, and if they had, Bennett would have worked out here. He started getting that more with Sutter, but that was 10 games and he was gone. Bennett apparently didn't even want to get traded any longer as he was enjoying his time with Sutter (and vice versa).



I am glad that Conroy mentioned Bennett himself and how it was a mistake to have not given him more of an opportunity and runway. Hopefully no other talented players fail through the fingers of this organization in the future.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

The expansion draft compromises this notion of 'free market value'. Only a few teams could take on Bennett without impacting their protection list

If other teams thought Bennett would become what he has they would have risked a mid player...truth is the whole league thought he was also mid

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by dino7c

If other teams thought Bennett would become what he has they would have risked a mid player...truth is the whole league thought he was also mid

Because of our misuse of him. How are you not connecting the dots between us burying him on the wing in the bottom six and his ruined trade value?

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Because of our misuse of him. How are you not connecting the dots between us burying him on the wing in the bottom six and his ruined trade value?

Mystifying. It is as difficult to solve as a 2 piece puzzle

[Snuffleupagus]

Bennett has had problems playing hard against McDufus, hopefully this is behind him.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Because of our misuse of him. How are you not connecting the dots between us burying him on the wing in the bottom six and his ruined trade value?

I had nothing to do with it

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by dino7c

If other teams thought Bennett would become what he has they would have risked a mid player...truth is the whole league thought he was also mid

Only one team got to see him every day in practice, games and off the ice.

[Erick Estrada]

If the guy can play a role in preventing the Oilers form winning the cup in back to back seasons then you can argue that the trade worked out great for Flames fans. Once Gulutzan destroyed his confidence there was a snowball effect and it seems a chance of scenery was probably needed to salvage his career. The Flames are not the first organization to mismanage a top prospect as it happens when you hire the wrong coach and teams do that all the time.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe

Craig Conroy essentially said that Bennett should have gotten more opportunity in Calgary. I think the "it wouldn't have worked out here" line is lazy to be honest, or at best not a well thought-out argument. Why wouldn't it work out here? It definitely did start to look like it was working out here for him under Darryl, and even Bennett stated as much. Why wasn't Bennett put into a position to succeed? Why did it work in Florida? How can the Flames avoid making this same mistake in the future?


Every team misidentifies talent at one point or another. Every team screws up a player's development every now and then. Flames have done this a few times now, and I am sure that if you go around the league, most teams have examples. It doesn't make it ok. Nobody blinked an eye when St. Louis left. That was a huge miss. Button had misidentified Savard and prioritized coaching ahead of Savard, and that was a miss. It cost the Flames a cup - most of the '04 team with Savard + Iginla = cup. Yeah, butterfly effect, so who really knows - it is a what-if game, but definitely one that makes you think. There are other examples too of course (and as I said, I am sure every team screws up in this manner every so often, so this isn't some shot at the Flames).



My point with Bennett - and I was not happy to see him go in that trade - was that he was never really given the runway. I felt the only coach to really put him in a position to succeed here was Hartley, but once he got canned, that was it. Gulutzan came in and the 'growing pains' were no longer tolerated. Ditto for Peters and Ward. None of these were quality coaches, but Bennett was a 4th overall pick. The Flames invested a LOT by drafting him, but then stopped prioritizing his development. Not all prospects develop the same way, and it can be very unfair. I just think it was a mistake to not prioritize his development, and if they had, Bennett would have worked out here. He started getting that more with Sutter, but that was 10 games and he was gone. Bennett apparently didn't even want to get traded any longer as he was enjoying his time with Sutter (and vice versa).



I am glad that Conroy mentioned Bennett himself and how it was a mistake to have not given him more of an opportunity and runway. Hopefully no other talented players fail through the fingers of this organization in the future.

Sutter made him a healthy scratch. At least twice IIRC.

[Mathgod]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Sutter made him a healthy scratch. At least twice IIRC.

How much of that was management telling Sutter that Bennett was about to be traded? Maybe Sutter handles things very differently if Bennett is not on his way out.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Mathgod

How much of that was management telling Sutter that Bennett was about to be traded? Maybe Sutter handles things very differently if Bennett is not on his way out.

C'mon, now you are reaching. Bennett was in and out. If he was held out for a trade, he'd not be inserted back at all. And since when does Sutter let management push him around.

Suttler likes grit, which Bennett had even then. But he hates penalties, he hates guys that don't do what he says, especially on defence, and he hates odd man rushs, which Sam sometimes caused by an overaggressive or ill advised forecheck.

Bennett was obviously not developed well here. but some of that is on him as well. Was he gifted top line minutes? Sometimes, albeit not for an extended time, and he never did well up there. Was he played as a centre? No, but he never beat out Monahan, Lindholm or Backlund for those jobs. Was he played on a lower line with underperformers? Yeah, but in theory, putting him with another first rounder in Jankowski and veteran scorer Neal should have been a good development move. Other top picks have kicked the doors down to get their spots. Bennett had a rough start and then didn't help his own cause.

Edit: after he healthy scratched him Sutter put him on the wing with Leivo and Ryan.

[Terradude]

For Calgary, Bennett will always be the fish that got away. But he never really played his way until he left. I recall in his rookie year when he didn't have too many points and then got four goals in a game. on the final one, he circled the ice and mimicked taking a monkey off his back.

I think he played with too much pressure for a draft pick that high. It wasn't imposed by the team but it was pressure that Sam placed on himself. I think he needed to get away from it in a somewhat anonymous environment that allowed him to grow. Perhaps he should have started in the minors, got completely angry and put the pressure on the team, instead of himself. Anyway...I hope he runs a few people, pots a few goals and gets to lift the cup again this year.

[InternationalVillager]

Is paying Bennett $8-9M per year worth it if that means unlocking a 90 point Huberdeau?

What if you add Marner to the mix? Then all of a sudden, you might have a 100 point Huberdeau.... lol

[Mathgod]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

C'mon, now you are reaching. Bennett was in and out. If he was held out for a trade, he'd not be inserted back at all. And since when does Sutter let management push him around.

Suttler likes grit, which Bennett had even then. But he hates penalties, he hates guys that don't do what he says, especially on defence, and he hates odd man rushs, which Sam sometimes caused by an overaggressive or ill advised forecheck.

Bennett was obviously not developed well here. but some of that is on him as well. Was he gifted top line minutes? Sometimes, albeit not for an extended time, and he never did well up there. Was he played as a centre? No, but he never beat out Monahan, Lindholm or Backlund for those jobs. Was he played on a lower line with underperformers? Yeah, but in theory, putting him with another first rounder in Jankowski and veteran scorer Neal should have been a good development move. Other top picks have kicked the doors down to get their spots. Bennett had a rough start and then didn't help his own cause.

Edit: after he healthy scratched him Sutter put him on the wing with Leivo and Ryan.

Yup. Stuck him on the 4th line knowing that he'd not be here for more than a few weeks.

[Manhattanboy]

Originally Posted by Mathgod

How much of that was management telling Sutter that Bennett was about to be traded? Maybe Sutter handles things very differently if Bennett is not on his way out.

After the trade didn’t Bennett say something publicly to the effect that he had hoped to have been able to stay longer to see how things might have gone once Sutter took over as head coach?

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by Manhattanboy

After the trade didn’t Bennett say something publicly to the effect that he had hoped to have been able to stay longer to see how things might have gone once Sutter took over as head coach?

His words:

“When I was playing under Darryl, I loved it,” Bennett told Francis. “I really liked playing for him. He was giving me a lot more opportunity, and I was really happy actually playing under him. I thought things were turning around for me for sure. I didn’t think I was going to get traded at the deadline after Darryl came in."


“I knew there was still a chance, but it seemed like I wasn’t going to.”

https://dailyhive.com/calgary/sam-be...d-flames-trade

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Terradude

For Calgary, Bennett will always be the fish that got away. But he never really played his way until he left. I recall in his rookie year when he didn't have too many points and then got four goals in a game. on the final one, he circled the ice and mimicked taking a monkey off his back.

I think he played with too much pressure for a draft pick that high. It wasn't imposed by the team but it was pressure that Sam placed on himself. I think he needed to get away from it in a somewhat anonymous environment that allowed him to grow. Perhaps he should have started in the minors, got completely angry and put the pressure on the team, instead of himself. Anyway...I hope he runs a few people, pots a few goals and gets to lift the cup again this year.

I don’t disagree with you except the monkey off the back sign and the 4 goals came in different games.