The Legend of Sam Bennett

[TOfan]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

I just find it amazing that this thread is getting bumped over and over. He was a bad draft pick. Unlike other bad draft picks we have had, he was our highest ever bad draft pick, so there's the bitterness. But he's gone and done here. And honestly, I don't care how he plays from now on, because he's no longer a Calgary Flame. Can we stop obsessing about him until Calgary plays Florida at least?

He wasn't a bad draft pick. He was the No.1 ranked skater by central scouting. There was a clear top-4 in that draft. I bet vast majority, or every, team in the league makes the same pick at that time.

[DropIt]

Bennett Sucks

[monkeyman]

It amazes me that people keep coming into a thread about Sam Bennett and are upset that posters are talking about Sam Bennett.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

I just find it amazing that this thread is getting bumped over and over. He was a bad draft pick. Unlike other bad draft picks we have had, he was our highest ever bad draft pick, so there's the bitterness. But he's gone and done here. And honestly, I don't care how he plays from now on, because he's no longer a Calgary Flame. Can we stop obsessing about him until Calgary plays Florida at least?

But he’s so exciting to watch and I have a soft spot for him! So much so that Florida is my new number two team and I’ve subscribed to Centre Ice just so I can catch all those Florida games. We should make a new sub forum so we can create more threads about him. We can start a fan club too!

Iggy didn’t get this much obsession and fanfare when he left.

It’s an unhealthy obsession for some.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

I just find it amazing that this thread is getting bumped over and over. He was a bad draft pick. Unlike other bad draft picks we have had, he was our highest ever bad draft pick, so there's the bitterness. But he's gone and done here. And honestly, I don't care how he plays from now on, because he's no longer a Calgary Flame. Can we stop obsessing about him until Calgary plays Florida at least?

Other people care how he plays because they like the player. If you have a personal disinterest in the conversation, it makes more sense not to be part of it than to ask other people not to discuss it.

I don’t understand this at all, it seems very easy to avoid.

[Flamesfan05]

Nope

The Flames did not use Bennett properly. Unless you believe the Flames have a stacked top 6. Results do not show it.

[Babby Daddy]

The Panthers are fun to watch.

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by TOfan

He wasn't a bad draft pick. He was the No.1 ranked skater by central scouting. There was a clear top-4 in that draft. I bet vast majority, or every, team in the league makes the same pick at that time.

High ranking doesn't make it a good pick; it just makes it explainable. It was a bad draft pick, because there were many players turning out better than him.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

But he’s so exciting to watch and I have a soft spot for him! So much so that Florida is my new number two team and I’ve subscribed to Centre Ice just so I can catch all those Florida games. We should make a new sub forum so we can create more threads about him. We can start a fan club too!

Iggy didn’t get this much obsession and fanfare when he left.

It’s an unhealthy obsession for some.

Like the people who keep coming into a thread on a topic they don’t want to talk about to let everyone know they don’t want to talk about it?

Grow up please, you’re boring.

[neo45]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

High ranking doesn't make it a good pick; it just makes it explainable. It was a bad draft pick, because there were many players turning out better than him.

Is that a bad pick or bad player development?

If he keeps it up in Florida it will be hard to argue, I think he will taper off but I tend to lean more towards bad development than blaming the scouts

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Like the people who keep coming into a thread on a topic they don’t want to talk about to let everyone know they don’t want to talk about it?

Grow up please, you’re boring.

I don’t know who you’re replying to but it isn’t me. I think the Bennett discussion is hilarious. If you have problems with other posters who are complaining about this thread, you should quote them instead. I love talking about Sam Bennett. I named my kids Sam, Bennett and Selfish Offensive Zone Penalty. We call him Sozp for short.

You sound pretty defensive though. Maybe if this topic gets you so riled up you might find it helpful to take a bit of a time out to collect yourself.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by neo45

Is that a bad pick or bad player development?

Can it be both? Can it be neither?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by devo22

I'm just really happy for Sam. I've always rooted hard for the guy and I'm not surprised he's thriving after a much-needed change of scenery. Hope he has a great year.

That sounds a little close to a Benzo addiction....

[TOfan]

Originally Posted by neo45

Is that a bad pick or bad player development?

If he keeps it up in Florida it will be hard to argue, I think he will taper off but I tend to lean more towards bad development than blaming the scouts

Maybe it comes down to circumstance, timing, and opportunity. It goes both ways. On one hand you have Martin St. Louis, on the other Mikka Kiprusoff.

Just because a player is successful in one spot is no guarantee he will be in another.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by TOfan

He wasn't a bad draft pick. He was the No.1 ranked skater by central scouting. There was a clear top-4 in that draft. I bet vast majority, or every, team in the league makes the same pick at that time.

If he was the #1 ranked skater for that draft this means 3 other teams passed on him, and it doesn't change the fact that he was still a bad pick. At the time I certainly thought it was a good pick, but it turned out Bennett was a colossal bust for someone who should be an elite scorer taken at that point in a draft.

A franchise can't ruin a player alone, so blaming the Flames is way off base, especially when they've done a solid job with players like Tkachuk in somewhat similar circumstances.

Looking back on it, Bennett leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth for being unwilling to evolve into something more when it was clear his skill set was nowhere near top 6 NHL player level. As a player you'd have to be pretty dim to think you're still a high end talent (which he seemed to infer more than a few times) when you can't even hold the puck, score with a clean shot or execute basic passes in traffic.

[neo45]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Can it be both? Can it be neither?

Well it’s definitely a failure somewhere along the line to turn 4th overall into the package we got


I lean more towards development failure than it being a bad pick considering how good his rookie season was

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by mrdonkey

The “holier than thou” angle taken by folks like Bingo and Textcritic etc, believing it is somehow their duty to police (or at least passive-aggressively shame) people’s opinions, doesn’t help. Pitting “camp positive” against “camp negative” is abrasive and only serves to escalate tension and alienate people.

One of the weirdest recurring takes here is that someone’s bull**** posts on a message board are somehow reflective of the quality of their character or their general outlook on life. Not everyone takes this miserable team so seriously that they allow it to colour their entire personality like that.

So you'd rather just negatively run a muck and not be questioned on it? Got it.

Never questioned anyone's character. Never painted his or anyone's outlook on the rest of their lives.

Get over yourself.

Its a hockey team with fans. Why is there a camp negative in the first place? Doesn't sound like a fun place to spend time.

[ComixZone]

If Bennett was a colossal bust, then why did a team much better than ours acquire him and play him on their 2nd line immediately and then extend him?

The Flames screwed it up by hiring multiple horrible coaches in a row, it’s not hard to see. It’s also a situation I believe that they’ve corrected in hiring Darryl Sutter - unfortunately it was too late with Bennett as he had already requested a trade.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

[player half a decade removed from his prime] didn’t get this much obsession and fanfare when he left [as player who should be at the absolute peak of his prime].

Hmm, I wonder why

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by neo45

Is that a bad pick or bad player development?

If he keeps it up in Florida it will be hard to argue, I think he will taper off but I tend to lean more towards bad development than blaming the scouts

Oh, I am not blaming anyone for that pick. I do understand why they felt compelled to pick Bennett 4th. It still doesn't make it a good pick though, that's all. My very first post on this forum was about the Flames' high-ranking scouting personnel comparing the draft process to a crap shoot. This simply proves it again and again; scouts rarely can predict well.

Also, I don't want to blame the development process, because we don't know much of how it works for different players. Obviously, it did not work well for Bennett here. But can we honestly assert that our prospect development system is significantly inferior to other teams? I strongly doubt that. It is one big circle of systems, personnel and tactics known to all of the people involved in it. Everything starts with the player - his talent, his work ethics and his attitude towards learning. Coaching and mentorship are extremely important but still secondary to the former - you can't develop above natural player's abilities. The impetus is always on the player to develop as much, as good and as fast as he can. Which brings us back to picking. We have to pick better. Obviously, some other teams do.