What is up with Sam Bennett???

[FBI]

Sweet! Bennett is going to get some points tonight!

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by Par

Chiasson does not belong in that group.

Yes, yes, we get it the Flames don't have a full compliment of legit Top 9 forwards. Does it need to be pointed out every single day?

[Frank MetaMusil]

Boomer & Warrener sounded off on Bennett this morning. Rhett thinks he needs to step it up, not producing/helping the team nearly enough. He said he doesn't want to throw him totally under the bus, but a 9 game scoring drought is far too long.

[Otto-matic]

I wonder if sitting Bennett for a game or two would help get him some perspective from above in the press box.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

Yes, yes, we get it the Flames don't have a full compliment of legit Top 9 forwards. Does it need to be pointed out every single day?

Being critical of the Flames depth is a more worthwhile post than being hyper critical of a 20 year old, first year centre.

People need to calm down, have some patience and try and gain some understanding of player development.

[Har-Calgary]

Originally Posted by Otto-matic

I wonder if sitting Bennett for a game or two would help get him some perspective from above in the press box.

Well he's back on a line with Johnny so let's see how that plays out first. I thought in the last two games he looked better, still not scoring but was winning puck battles and playing better IMO.

[dustygoon]

I see Bennett do a lot of good things except shoot more. Just generate some more shots. His style means they won't be crappy perimeter shots either.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

Being critical of the Flames depth is a more worthwhile post than being hyper critical of a 20 year old, first year centre.

People need to calm down, have some patience and try and gain some understanding of player development.

People also need to be aware that almost no team in the NHL has a full compliment of six top-end forwards, four defensemen, and a starting goalie. It is extremely difficult to construct a team with that kind of depth in today's level of parity, and the Flames will need to find ways to compensate for the weaknesses in their roster, just like every recent championship team.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

Being critical of the Flames depth is a more worthwhile post than being hyper critical of a 20 year old, first year centre.

People need to calm down, have some patience and try and gain some understanding of player development.

Totally agree, point still remains.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

Being critical of the Flames depth is a more worthwhile post than being hyper critical of a 20 year old, first year centre.

People need to calm down, have some patience and try and gain some understanding of player development.

Except that hyper critical is overstating it.
I may have missed some, but I don't see hyper critical. I do see a percentage of this forum, myself included, disappointed that he hasn't progressed more. And you are right, that is impatience on my part.

But is has nothing to do with your condescending 'try and gain some understanding of player development' nonsense.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

But is has nothing to do with your condescending 'try and gain some understanding of player development' nonsense.

Wasn't trying to be offensive - but yeah, it comes off that way - so my apologies. It's just hard to understand the impatience when it comes to young developing players. Especially because of how everyone was hating on Hamilton and calling him a bust etc., and now he's our best D-man. Players take time to develop, and it's different for every player - take a look at how long it took Backlund to round out his game. So a level of frustration may be understandable, but seeing people on here going on about how they view Bennett as trade bait etc., it's crazy to me.

Kristen Odeland from the Calgary Sun has an article up.

“The one thing with every young guy — and I can go back to Cody Eakin (in Dallas) and Bo Horvat (in Vancouver) — it takes them awhile to become a successful centreman in this league,” Gulutzan said. “Unless they’ve got a real special talent, it’s not easy to take draws against guys that have taken thousands of draws against men over the course of the last 10 years. That’s one of the things that every young guy seems to get better at every year.

[Da_Chief]

I wish people would stop using Backlund as some sort of success story. He's about to turn 28 in couple of months and he's having his career year, just now. Has never hit 50 points before. If all teams persisted with all players this long then most of them would eventually turn into something. He's been lucky the Flames didn't discard him with his injury issues, inconsistencies etc. He has been given a lot of time to get to where he's at today.

By all means, if folks want to wait on Bennett to have a career year when he's in his late 20s and use him as another template then all the power to them.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by Da_Chief

I wish people would stop using Backlund as some sort of success story. He's about to turn 28 in couple of months and he's having his career year, just now. Has never hit 50 points before. If all teams persisted with all players this long then most of them would eventually turn into something. He's been lucky the Flames didn't discard him with his injury issues, inconsistencies etc. He has been given a lot of time to get to where he's at today.

By all means, if folks want to wait on Bennett to have a career year when he's in his late 20s and use him as another template then all the power to them.

Not what I'm saying at all - and in Bennett's case, Hamilton is a much better example - but the point is, 20 year old player don't magically become elite centres, unless of course you're a McDavid/Crosby level of player where you're starting at a different point to begin with.

Bennett is 20. He's 1.5 years into his NHL career, and he's only really played half a year as a centre, and people are expecting something that is entirely unrealistic.

After 2 decades of not having any high end centres at all, some people seem to want to turn on Bennett and Monahan after 40 games under a new head coach. That's lunacy.

[MarkGio]

It's not just Bennett. The following players, IMO, are having substandard seasons:

-- Giordano
-- Brodie
-- Monahan
-- Gaudreau
-- Bennett
-- Brouwer
-- Elliott

So this is more evidence of a common denominator moreso that solely restricted to Bennett alone. Guys like Giordano, Elliott, Gaudreau, Monahan, and Brodie are some elite talents, so if Bennett is also among them struggling, then it's not a concern of talent IMO.

The only guys who are successful under GG are Backs, Frolik, Hamilton, Johnson ,Tkachuk and Stajan. So far 50% of the roster or so are struggling. I know we want to jump on Bennett for what's going on, but that's not fair when there's a bigger picture here to examine.

[Sylvanfan]

Yeah he's not doing much of anything right now. Every day he makes the Oilers look smarter for taking Draisaitl. At least his next contract should be pretty cheap. He hasn't earned a dime more than 2 million for next year and won't come close to earning any bonuses.

[MarkGio]

Drasaitl is playing right wing. In fact, Drai has barely played center at the NHL level. I'm sure if Bennett was on Backs wing instead of Tkachuk, we'd see a different point total this year

[Brick]

Bennett should be playing against McDavid. He has a history of shutting him down. It worked well when Hartley was coaching.

[burnitdown]

Originally Posted by Da_Chief

I wish people would stop using Backlund as some sort of success story. He's about to turn 28 in couple of months and he's having his career year, just now. Has never hit 50 points before. If all teams persisted with all players this long then most of them would eventually turn into something. He's been lucky the Flames didn't discard him with his injury issues, inconsistencies etc. He has been given a lot of time to get to where he's at today.

By all means, if folks want to wait on Bennett to have a career year when he's in his late 20s and use him as another template then all the power to them.

I agree it's annoying when people point to a Backlund or Giordano to suggest people have no right to worry about a player's development. It's equally frustrating when people point to a Draisaitl or Tkachuk trying to prove that a player like Bennett is developing relatively slower. These are all just cherry-picked examples that are outliers to the norm.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by burnitdown

I agree it's annoying when people point to a Backlund or Giordano to suggest people have no right to worry about a player's development. It's equally frustrating when people point to a Draisaitl or Tkachuk trying to prove that a player like Bennett is developing relatively slower. These are all just cherry-picked examples that are outliers to the norm.

There is no "norm" in player development and that's a concept that should be done away with. Each player is his own unique special snowflake who develops at his own unique pace with his own forward and backward progress at times. Giordano and Backlund are brought up to illustrate just this exact point. Anyone believing there's a normal player development hasn't watched enough players develop.

The speed of Bennett's development is somewhat irrelevant. Much more important is how good of a player he ends up. Those worried about the speed of his development vs Draisaitl are worried about the wrong thing. Those worried about his long term development are prematurely worrying because this development thing doesn't happen overnight.

Those pointing to the Giordano and Backlund examples are trying to show how patience is a virtue and that needlessly worrying about the development of 20 year olds is sure to bring you more pain than joy. Have patience. Watch him develop.

[MarkGio]

Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher

There is no "norm" in player development and that's a concept that should be done away with. Each player is his own unique special snowflake who develops at his own unique pace with his own forward and backward progress at times. Giordano and Backlund are brought up to illustrate just this exact point. Anyone believing there's a normal player development hasn't watched enough players develop.

The speed of Bennett's development is somewhat irrelevant. Much more important is how good of a player he ends up. Those worried about the speed of his development vs Draisaitl are worried about the wrong thing. Those worried about his long term development are prematurely worrying because this development thing doesn't happen overnight.

Those pointing to the Giordano and Backlund examples are trying to show how patience is a virtue and that needlessly worrying about the development of 20 year olds is sure to bring you more pain than joy. Have patience. Watch him develop.

Hockey is fairly unique in this regard. Rarely is there an undrafted NBA, MLB, and NFL star. Moreover, NBA and NFL have really only one avenue of talent stream prior to being drafted: NCAA. Hockey has a dozen or so leagues to potentially draft from:

-- CHL (3 leagues here)
-- NCAA
-- USHL
-- KHL
-- CHL
-- DEL
-- Swedish Elite

In every other major sport, is it rare for a later round draft pick to pan out. In NFL, almost all first rounders make their team the next season. In NBA, it's rare a 1st rounder doesn't have a career. The NHL uniquely has a 4th round and it's possible that this round yields a star player, nevermind just a player who makes the NHL at least one game.

Hockey, for some reason, is just a large crapshoot when it comes to development and drafting. Only the NHL and MLB have such a wide variety of player heights. In NFL and NBA, you cannot be small. Only the NBA and NHL draft from global labour pools, whereas the MLB and NFL are almost entirely North American.

Plus consider the sport. In the NHL, you can have a forward play every forward position, and similiar, Dmen play both sides. All players are subject to special teams. It's like the NBA in that regard. In football, a QB isn't playing the WR position. In baseball, your short stop isn't your outfielder one day. There's a reason every NHLer has a different development plan. It's a unique sport when it comes to drafting and developing.