Sam Bennett Value: Have the Flames held on TOO long? OR is he awesome?

[yourbestfriend]

Originally Posted by Husky

Like most players, for Bennett to hit 50 points he needs consistent PP time. Flames either need to devote a solid year of keeping him in the top 6 with being on one of the PP units or move on. Doing in inbetween is not good for anyone.

This is the reason why most of us were irate with the way GG was utilizing Brouwer. GG was gifting PP and top6 minutes to Brouwer when he had done nothing to prove he deserved it.

Which brings us back to the issue of, why should we gift Bennett favorable situations when he's done nothing to prove he deserves it either?

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by yourbestfriend

This is the reason why most of us were irate with the way GG was utilizing Brouwer. GG was gifting PP and top6 minutes to Brouwer when he had done nothing to prove he deserved it.

Which brings us back to the issue of, why should we gift Bennett favorable situations when he's done nothing to prove he deserves it either?

Because he was drafted 4th overall and had a 4 goal game, one time.

But really I don't think we should. The Tkachuk example doesn't fit here, tkachuk did start on lower lines and proved he belonged before settling in where he's at. Bennett never really proved he belonged anywhere.

[Strange Brew]

A little surprised at how often one highly productive game is cited as a reason for praising Bennett. I see reasons to be patient but his junior career and one NHL game are down the list IMO.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

A little surprised at how often one highly productive game is cited as a reason for praising Bennett. I see reasons to be patient but his junior career and one NHL game are down the list IMO.

Especially when that game was against a Florida team at the end of a long road trip that totally mailed it in.

I see Bennett finding his stride as a 3C. If he can work on his shutdown game and be solid defensively he will have a decent NHL career.

[ForeverFlameFan]

I still think Bennett has the potential to hit around 50-55 points, but he's not the 75 point center that I thought he'd be when we first drafted him. Our team would have been in a whole different situation if he was able to move Monahan down to 2nd line center or Backlund as our 3rd line center.

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by Harry Lime

I'm not sure if we were watching the same player. Bennett does have dynamic qualities. He excels at digging pucks out of the corner, a strong first step out of a pivot and rushing the net.

He was taught at the nhl level, to be defensively responsible, don't get caught in the corners, quick first pass, and to be positionally prepared to cover the defense.

The opposite of what he is good at.

When he had a lapse and went back to 'his' game, we ended up with things like the 4 goal game. But that was not his role. If he was given the leniency that Tkachuk has seen, we would have 2 sonic the hedgehog players and not 1.

Tkachuk, and Bennett when he played there, benefits from playing on Backlunds line, where he can play a much more aggressive style.

Take the aggression out of Bennett, and we get last seasons half a Bennett.

He will hit 50 points.

Oh we're definitely watching the same player, but we obviously have completely different interpretations. I see a player who has had 3 straight seasons of average play who hasn't shown enough ability to be a positively impactful player on a nightly basis; very much the opposite of his fellow 2014 draft alumni like Pastrnak, Draisaitl, Nylander, Ehlers, Point and etc who have been absolutely tearing it up in the same time frame.

The "dynamic" skills that you listed is more consistent of a 3rd line grinder rather than an elite scoring forward. Those weren't the type of dynamic skills that I had in mind.

He had 1 good month in December where it looked like he might be turning a corner, then sadly, he regressed and struggled mightily down the final half of the season on both ends of the ice while taking a lot of bad offensive zone penalties again.

Sam Bennett may at some point in his career hit the 40-50 point mark, but if he continues to take boneheaded penalties that hurts his team on a consistent basis, I'm not sure how happy I'd be to have him playing even more minutes and even tougher situations than he already is.

[Stanley]

It's pretty sad that Bennett has essentially become a "throw in" in a trade

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by SeanCharles

Give him the year to show what he is truly capable of. If he fails next year then we know, but I still think it's too early to write him off as a 3rd liner.

He already is a third liner.

His production is a huge disappointment for fourth overall, but at $1.9M his 25-35 points is money.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

A little surprised at how often one highly productive game is cited as a reason for praising Bennett. I see reasons to be patient but his junior career and one NHL game are down the list IMO.

I think you are taking me too literally.

Junior scoring stars, take Glen Gawdin for example, often come to the show and then sometimes just can't think the game to apply their skill to the level they had in juniors.

Bennett, four goals or not, has had spurts of almost taking over games. The junior star never teases to that extent.

He may never put it together to that level, but we've seen it at the NHL level and because of that you have to put him in a different place than the Morgan Klimchuk's of the world.

[DeluxeMoustache]

I wish Jagr had stayed healthy. That line, for the brief time he was, played very well. I don’t think Bennett can drag subpar line mates along at this point, but can play well in the right circumstances.

It is up to the coach to identify those circumstances and put him in a position to succeed.

I think he is still very young, and if he is coachable, which he seemed to be with Hartley, we may well see improvement.

Again, only the top line and Tkachuk thrived under Gulutzan. I guess the top pair D was good but don’t like Gio at 39 points rather than the 60 point pace he was at. The rest of the team disappointed and that is on coaching.

Hopefully Peters is a good coach. I would be surprised if Bennett does not improve.

[iloveicedhockey]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Especially when that game was against a Florida team at the end of a long road trip that totally mailed it in.

Florida were the hottest team the league on a 12 game win streak when Bennett scored four against them.

I don't know if Bennett will become more than he is currently but if peters decides to give him ice time with better linemates, or PP time, he needs to be convinced that he won't be thrown back with Brouwer if he doesn't instantly return results in two games.

[bigrangy]

Originally Posted by yourbestfriend

Which brings us back to the issue of, why should we gift Bennett favorable situations when he's done nothing to prove he deserves it either?

Yeah he hasn't done a damn thing besides lead the team in individual scoring chances for and high danger scoring chances for/60, and only trails Backlund and Versteeg in takeaways/60

Bennett was the only bright spot in the bottom six this year after Jagr got hurt. His game is rough but it's still miles better than anyone outside the top 6, and given time, he should be able to be a solid middle sixer at the very least. He's already a solid third liner.

The Flames have thrown away enough NHL talent over the last few years (Byron, Chiasson, Baertschi) because they thought they should have been better than they were. Hopefully it doesn't happen again with Bennett.

[Kipper_3434]

It's all coaching and team atmosphere. Look at that schultz guy that left the Oilers. Now hes a star defenseman. This gives me hope for Brodie, Bennett, Lazar and even Brouwer.

We didn't wait too long. Tre hired the wrong coach.

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by iloveicedhockey

Florida were the hottest team the league on a 12 game win streak when Bennett scored four against them.

I don't know if Bennett will become more than he is currently but if peters decides to give him ice time with better linemates, or PP time, he needs to be convinced that he won't be thrown back with Brouwer if he doesn't instantly return results in two games.

Don’t even remember Bennett playing a game with Brouwer. He almost exclusively played with Jankowski and Hathaway or with Monahan and Gaudreau. I’m of the opinion that you don’t give more ice time to players just to improve their stats, you give more ice time to players who deserve it.

If Sam Bennett plays more or higher up the line up next season, it should be because he earned it.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper

Don’t even remember Bennett playing a game with Brouwer. He almost exclusively played with Jankowski and Hathaway or with Monahan and Gaudreau. I’m of the opinion that you don’t give more ice time to players just to improve their stats, you give more ice time to players who deserve it.

If Sam Bennett plays more or higher up the line up next season, it should be because he earned it.

He didn't play much with Brouwer this year. He even played more with Jagr.

https://frozenpool.dobbersports.com/...es=2017-2018:R

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by Kipper_3434

It's all coaching and team atmosphere. Look at that schultz guy that left the Oilers. Now hes a star defenseman. This gives me hope for Brodie, Bennett, Lazar and even Brouwer.

We didn't wait too long. Tre hired the wrong coach.

I’d say it’s more slotting than anything. Schultz was playing #1 minutes against top 6 forwards and at his young age, he was getting eaten alive. Then he goes to the Penguins and they cut his ice time in half and they play him as the #6 defenseman while sheltering him and he flourished. Schultz always had skill, but you can’t set up a young player for failure like the Oilers did.

[iloveicedhockey]

My mistake, chaps. I guess I'm using Brouwer as a unifying term for the plugs in our line up. I also didn't say he should be gifted time, just perhaps given a little longer leash if he gets there just so he gets out of his own head and just plays his game.

PP time is a little different, I don't think many of our players earned their time on the powerplay last year. Thank goodness Cameron is gone. Saying that, we don't know who'll be in charge of special teams this year so who knows.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by iloveicedhockey

My mistake, chaps. I guess I'm using Brouwer as a unifying term for the plugs in our line up.

The only plug he regularly played with was Hathaway, and he wasn't bad for the whole year. He regularly got Jankowski, Gaudreau, Monahan and Jagr. Now the biggest complaint seems to be that he wasn't put on the top line as a fixture.

[Karl]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

The only plug he regularly played with was Hathaway, and he wasn't bad for the whole year. He regularly got Jankowski, Gaudreau, Monahan and Jagr. Now the biggest complaint seems to be that he wasn't put on the top line as a fixture.

Aside from the 1st 2 weeks when he was first called up and was on fire, Hathaway mostly was really bad after that for the rest of the year.

[Mathgod]

The kid has talent. There's a good chance that Bennett could become a major point producer if he were to be traded to another team. It would a shame if he were traded without significant value coming back in return.