[News] With the 21st overall pick Flames select C Mark Jankowski

[automaton 3]

Maybe not even AHL time so much as more time playing on the wing? He looked pretty good there imo.

This apparent stubborness that Bennett must learn to play centre while he is obviously struggling, while a guy that plays centre pretty well waits in the A, just seems so odd.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by Love

Combine Monahan and Bennett and you might just get a first line center...

So a center known to be in the right spot to score a load of goals, but instead takes a stupid minor penalty? I'd rather just have Monahan than a combination of Monahan and Bennett at this point..

[Love]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

So a center known to be in the right spot to score a load of goals, but instead takes a stupid minor penalty? I'd rather just have Monahan than a combination of Monahan and Bennett at this point..

Monahan's brain with Bennett's tools would be the franchise center that we need

[TheFlamesVan]

Originally Posted by Love

Monahan's brain with Bennett's tools would be the franchise center that we need

Jankowskis brain, Monahans shot, and Bennetts wheels.

[joejoe3]

Originally Posted by Love

Combine Monahan and Bennett and you might just get a first line center...

Introducing your Calgary Flames' newest first line center, Seam Benahan

[Sandman]

Looks like Dane Cook. lol

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Love

Combine Monahan and Bennett and you might just get a first line center...

Sean Monahan has outproduced everyone in his draft class including Nathan MacKinnon, yet he's not a #1 centre.

"Oh but he plays with Gaudreau"

Show me a #1C in the league who plays with nobodies and gets 100 points and I'll show you Sidney Crosby.

Monahan could be better defensively. I wish he was better at faceoffs on the PP. But to say he's not a #1C in his own right is inaccurate.

[joejoe3]

Originally Posted by TheFlamesVan

Jankowskis brain, Monahans shot, and Bennetts wheels.

The perfect centerman

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Sean Monahan has outproduced everyone in his draft class including Nathan MacKinnon, yet he's not a #1 centre.

"Oh but he plays with Gaudreau"

Show me a #1C in the league who plays with nobodies and gets 100 points and I'll show you Sidney Crosby.

Monahan could be better defensively. I wish he was better at faceoffs on the PP. But to say he's not a #1C in his own right is inaccurate.

Agreed. Mind you, he was the best centre on faceoffs on the team in Calgary last season. I don't know about PP but then again, that's against the best defensive centres in the league.

[PepsiFree]

Bennett’s development and handling by the team actually reminds me a lot of Galchenyuk. That can be a bad thing but there’s also a chance it’s a good thing, it really depends on how things move forward.

Either way, I think it’s far far too early to make definitive claims about what Bennett is or isn’t, and to state his potential is dried up. At newly 21 I’m still confident he has plenty of time. He won’t be the first top 5 pick not to make an impact right away, and he won’t be he last. He’s not even the only one in his draft class. I’m happy to wait, I like the good things he’s shown, and I think the bad is still coachable.

[HighLifeMan]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Monahan could be better defensively. I wish he was better at faceoffs on the PP. But to say he's not a #1C in his own right is inaccurate.

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Agreed. Mind you, he was the best centre on faceoffs on the team in Calgary last season. I don't know about PP but then again, that's against the best defensive centres in the league.

Monahan was 54.8% in the dot on the powerplay last season (272 total faceoffs).

This year he sits at 42.9% but with an incredibly small sample size (21 total faceoffs)

[Jeff Lebowski]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Bennett’s development and handling by the team actually reminds me a lot of Galchenyuk. That can be a bad thing but there’s also a chance it’s a good thing, it really depends on how things move forward.

Either way, I think it’s far far too early to make definitive claims about what Bennett is or isn’t, and to state his potential is dried up. At newly 21 I’m still confident he has plenty of time. He won’t be the first top 5 pick not to make an impact right away, and he won’t be he last. He’s not even the only one in his draft class. I’m happy to wait, I like the good things he’s shown, and I think the bad is still coachable.

I generally agree with this. I think that if you want Bennett to develop as a centre he needs a line driving, control the play winger like what Gaudreau does for Monahan. They kind of forward who can control the puck through the neutral zone and make a controlled zone entry where they either attack off the rush or start a cycle. Guys like Tkachuk and Monahan, although greatly skilled, need the puck brought in for them.

Right now Bennett has been paired with Versteeg and neither one of them is a line driver - they both need someone else to carry the mail. Now Bennett might be able to do that. Gulutzan has said he believes Bennett will drive a line but we just haven't seen it consistently.

So I think if you want to develop Bennett properly you either find him a winger or you decide to develop him as a top 6 forward instead of as a centre and play him Backlund. You could play him as a centre with Gaudreau but then what do you do with Monahan?

This impacts Jankowski's development as well. Maybe he's that 3C who can drive a line. It seems like he does that in Stockton.

So Bennett's and Jankowski's development by the team is concerning to me right now.

The big issue with the Flames is that they only have two forwards who can drive a line consistently right now: Gaudreau and Backlund

[JJFlash]

Makes you wonder if Bennett is starting to ask to play wing again. He has 0 points in 7 games and wants to secure a big contract. I have not heard of that happening with his projected point totals. I still think that this road trip will be the litmus test for some players. I can't get past the fact that BT was worried about offense yet they sent down their preseason leading scorer. Why not ride Jankowski's offence into the season and make a decision after a trial period.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by joejoe3

Introducing your Calgary Flames' newest first line center, Seam Benahan

This looks eerily like Curtis Lazar

[Redrum]

Originally Posted by Sandman

Looks like Dane Cook. lol

Especially since even with a goofy face it's hard to laugh at him.

[Love]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Sean Monahan has outproduced everyone in his draft class including Nathan MacKinnon, yet he's not a #1 centre.

"Oh but he plays with Gaudreau"

Show me a #1C in the league who plays with nobodies and gets 100 points and I'll show you Sidney Crosby.

Monahan could be better defensively. I wish he was better at faceoffs on the PP. But to say he's not a #1C in his own right is inaccurate.

Yeah yeah yeah, you guys post this every time there is any sort of criticism regarding Monahan's game. He is not a difference maker and those numbers won't change my opinion.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Love

Yeah yeah yeah, you guys post this every time there is any sort of criticism regarding Monahan's game. He is not a difference maker and those numbers won't change my opinion.

He scored 4 goals in the playoffs. He has 21 game winning goals. And he's younger than Mark Jankowski.

Not a difference maker = bad take.

[AC]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

He scored 4 goals in the playoffs. He has 21 game winning goals. And he's younger than Mark Jankowski.

Not a difference maker = bad take.

Including 8 OT goals. A franchise record at 23 years old.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by JJFlash

Makes you wonder if Bennett is starting to ask to play wing again. He has 0 points in 7 games and wants to secure a big contract.

How about we let him play more than 7 games out of his existing contract? I don't think he's terribly focused at this moment on how much money he may be making two years from now.

[GoJetsGo]

21 NHL game winning goals at 23 years old including 8 in OT and he's "not a difference maker"?

I read some really asinine things about Monahan in last week's circus thread that I thought would stand as the most outrageous things said about him for a long time and that lasted a week.

Wow.