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Originally Posted by Joborule
What opportunities has he gotten?
This is his first real opportunity that I can honestly recall. Ferland has been giving much more than Bennett has.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by YourMother
I feel like he actually hasn’t been put in a great situation to succeed to this point. Forced to play centre which he struggled with very clearly, played primarily with Brouwer last year and this year with two rookies. He had chemistry in the pre-season with Johnny but tonight was the first time we’ve seen that since. Maybe I’m missing something.
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Firstly, as a caveat to my statement, the one thing to look at is that the expected development is always different for players. Also, it's based on management trying to build pairs and slotting in a third accessory player in those pairs. Ferland can always be viewed as an accessory to his line, hence why he's doing just fine with two stud players (JG & SM), but I think we can all agree that he cannot carry a line on his own.
Bennett was drafted in a position where he is expected to carry a line. With that, he should be able to succeed on a line by playing in a pair with an accessory player, ie. one player with high end caliber to JG & SM, while the third player is an accessory player.
First season was great being with Backlund and Frolik, I think we all understand what they bring to player development and why Bennett was on this line (Get his feet wet at the NHL level, get used to the speed, etc).
Last season, it seems that management was ready to have him take that next step to carry a line. He did have quite a bit with JG to test out the pair model, but couldn't produce to expectations. Also, he was cycling on C as much as possible because he is a natural center, was drafted in that position, and has played that position his entire hockey life. The focus isn't purely on points but rather how he develops as a C/W.
This season, It looks like management has decided that Bennett isn't a C. How to focus his position on W, and specifically LW. I don't know the basis of why, maybe it's GG's whole L/R handedness thing, I don't know. Regardless of this, he will continue to be below JG and MT on the depth chart on LW. On C, he will be below SM & MB. Management seems to still believe he can carry a line, thus they've tried other players to create that pair, whether it's Versteeg, Jagr, or Jankowski, not top end talents by any means, agreed.
However, there have been many occurrences where he has been thrown on a line occasionally with those all of our current top 6, whether it be near the end of the game or on special teams. SB has never been able to take advantage of those opportunities.
Given last game, maybe they're giving up on SB being able to carry a line and moving him into that accessory role? Or maybe once again, giving him an opportunity to gain some confidence and grow with Ferland getting hurt. I'd say likely the latter, because you want Ferland to produce the way he is on that top line.
If SB can make it work as a RW, maybe having him and Tkachuk as a pairing might round out having a strong Top 9, as it seems that moving forward, Bennett is going to stay on a wing, and not center.
I could be way off on my analysis but this is simply what I've observed. I've always been and still am very very pro Sam Bennett and cringe when people want to trade him, I just think his development will take quite some time, similar to Backlund. Fan's hated Backlund for years, now everyone loves him. Just need a little patience.
I'm happy with his performance last night and hope to see more of him succeeding, but I can't agree that he hasn't had ample opportunities to be in the best position to succeed, given the expectations. He has had special teams work, he has had time with the top guys (maybe not as much as we would like) but still has gotten some opportunities.
You can always put players with JG and SM and they should succeed, but you need to also place JG and SM with players that will help their game as well. Throwing Havrik on that top line is putting him in a position to succeed, but it could be detrimental to our biggest offensive drivers.
At the end of the day, aside from special teams, our key to success and winning will always be with having a strong third line that can score.
