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

[SeanCharles]

I think the bump is because we could use more offensive support from our bottom 6 and the chemistry Dube and Bennett showed in their brief stint together was intriguing.

Was it a fluke?

Was it true chemistry?

Was is because Bennett was back at center?

I think another part of it is because Reider and Jankowski (especially) have been frustrating players thoughout the season and are easily our least effective forwards in terms of generating goals.

Reider generates offence with his speed but it typically leads to nothing due to a lack of finish.

If we want to get excited about Mangiapane and say Hanifin still has room to grow why are we not trying to harness some of the flashes we see in Sam?

He is younger than Mangiapane and both he and Hanifin have been in the league a long time.

I get the counter arguments like he seems to lack hockey IQ, he is where he is because of his own doing, Mangiapane is less experienced but looks better and Hanifin is a dman who typically take longer and so on.

But, one other thing I have been stewing on is maybe Bennett is actually a center and like Backlund, he struggles when asked to simplify his game and play wing.

I know he thrived with Backs and Fro but that was a top 6 winger gig with those 2 in their primes as solid 2-way forwards.

He’s good on draws, he's a good skater, he is a hound on the puck and is an underrated playmaker. Qualities one wants in their centres.

It’s also possible I just can’t let it go because he seemed like a sure thing after his rookie season and subsequent playoff appearances..

I just think he can provide more than he is and relegating him further down the lineup just kills his confidence and he is a player that thrives when his confidence is high.

He was playing so well and looked confident and then a few shift into the 1st game Ryan came back they bump him back to the 4th line.. wtf?

If the 4th line had Ryan and Hathaway on it I wouldn’t care as much but Bennett has been stapled to a long list of players who have had disappointing seasons in Flames colours:

Jankowski, Neal, Brouwer, Versteeg in his injury plagued season, Jagr who was broken down..

It’s not even that I want Bennett to be higher in the lineup. I see chemistry there and the coach just seems to ignore it.

Put Bennett and Dube together FFS and do it for an extended period of time.

[GioforPM]

I don’t think Bennett looked like a sure thing in his rookie season. People here commented on a lot of things that are still issues today - the tunnel vision, skating into coverage, toe drags, etc. His play was really inconsistent, which we hoped was a rookie thing.

Did he show chemistry with Dube when Ryan got sick? Some I guess, but I wasn’t as impressed as some here obviously were. And it wasn’t more than Ryan had shown already, hence Ryan’s return to that spot when he came back.

Bennett got 2 goals in the game with Dube against Chicago. Bennett was also 0 +/- in that game despite his 2 goals. And the game was a big 8-4 loss. So defensively that line was not great. The next game he got a goal again but was -1. Again, the line was not that good.

[BigRed]

Put Sam in the AHL and he’s likely a superstar. There, he’s physically superior to most and can play his OHL game.

In the bigs, players are too big, fast and smart for him to play to his junior strengths. He’s at best on par and in most cases we’ll below the opposition, particularly in the awareness category.

If Sam can’t do it all himself, like he did in junior, his effectiveness is severely limited. He just can’t in the NHL. I’d like to see him either moved or not qualified when his contract comes up and re-signed to a deal more in line with his contributions, ~ $1 mln.

He’s still an NHL player. But I believe his ceiling is utility forward and we should stop expecting more.


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[kukkudo]

Originally Posted by BigRed

Put Sam in the AHL and he’s likely a superstar. There, he’s physically superior to most and can play his OHL game.

In the bigs, players are too big, fast and smart for him to play to his junior strengths. He’s at best on par and in most cases we’ll below the opposition, particularly in the awareness category.

If Sam can’t do it all himself, like he did in junior, his effectiveness is severely limited. He just can’t in the NHL. I’d like to see him either moved or not qualified when his contract comes up and re-signed to a deal more in line with his contributions, ~ $1 mln.

He’s still an NHL player. But I believe his ceiling is utility forward and we should stop expecting more.


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I want him to get 70 points

[Scroopy Noopers]

It’s been mentioned a few times but I’m my opinion the biggest thing Bennett can do is work on his shot. He gets to the hard areas, he has opportunities to take shots off the wing, and he always does that sweeping wrist shot thing.

If he could shoot half as well as Monahan we’d have a great 2nd line player on our hands.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by kukkudo

I want him to get 70 points

Why stop there? I want him to get 110.

[BigErnSalute_16]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

If it were simply a matter of playing Bennett higher up the lineup, he wouldn't be such a misfit toy.

Bennett is a good, not great, skater with good, not great, hands who has one move and an okay shot. He also has a unique ability to take awful penalities 200 feet from his net at the exact moment that would most convince his coaches that he can't be trusted on the top lines.

He's the exact sort of player who becomes a liability as soon as he gets paid any significant money.

His style lends itself to some noteworthy playoff moments, especially early in the first round when everyone smashes into each other like they're playing hockey in a particle accelerator. But he's not able to consistently make high level high IQ plays that win games in rounds 3 and 4.

Hall of Fame duster, though.

I'll take statements pulled out of someones ass for 100, Alex