Why do you think Bennett isn't getting the opportunities with better players then?
Because he was drafted to a team that had a "30 goal 1C" and a "Selke" 2C, and two top 10 in NHL left wingers. That is four left handed shot forwards who by default get played ahead of Bennett. I'll be the first to tell you that as left wingers, both Tkachuk and Gaudreau are better than Bennett, because that's their natural position and they can play their own game there. Bennett is a center, and this organization has been mishandling center centers dating back to Marc Savard.
Now I don't think Backlund is as good as Bennett offensively, but I do think his defensive play warrants his minutes.
What I don't think is that Monahan is anywhere near the complete center Bennett is. This team is complacent to settle for his 30 goals a year and annual first round playoff exit built around a center who's actually just a winger that takes faceoffs. Every year it's the same top line failing over and over again, the GM just changes coaches and they try the same thing.
What do the coaches have against him?
Hartley got fired for Jonas Hiller's goaltending. He had nothing against Bennett. He had Bennett centering Gaudreau at first, but needed to get a slumping Monahan going and ruined a good thing. Then he had Bennett play top six where he had a solid rookie campaign for a guy playing out of position. And then he closed the year centering some of our bottom sixers - guys like Colborne and Bouma. The numbers weren't there with Bouma missing wide open nets and Jooris proving to be a one-hit-wonder but Hartley saw the potential 1C. He was raving about Bennett that summer, talking about how he felt Bennett was already ready to be hard matching with the Kopitars of the world. A week later Tre fired him.
Gulutzan didn't know how to handle a young talented center. Even then, Gulutzan compared Bennett to Tyler Seguin
after his first year of coaching him. He clearly thought Bennett was due for a breakout. Unfortunately he didn't have a clue what he was doing. He got fired for this reason.
Peters just never figured out centers. Same coach who turned Eric Staal into a failure of a Left Winger, and drafted Lindholm only to turn him into a permanent RW. Remember, there was a time Eric Staal was considered "done" as a top six forward. You want to know what period of his career that was? Hint Hint.
All that leaves is Ward, and he might be the most clueless of the bunch. Everything he's done so far is just a combination of a few things that worked for Peters
for a few months. He's not an NHL caliber head coach.
Why do I think Bennett isn't getting the opportunities with better players? Because the organization doesn't have a clue what they're doing. As soon as this kid leaves this organization, someone's going to look at him and say "holy shit. We've found the answer to all our problems."
Right but why is he not getting consistent linemates?
The simple answer is that he's an afterthought to the organization. Even when he led the team in playoff scoring, a point per game, they had him second-to-last in ice time.
This team is All-In on Sean Monahan.
Lol.
There's no team in the NHL that would actually think Monahan's a guy who can take a team to the promised land, but this organization will live and die with him.