What has happebed to Sam Bennet ??
I remember when the Canucks played the Flames in rnd 1 a few yrs ago and Hughson and CBC kept referring to him as 19 yr old Sam Bennet. They were in awe of this guy. Compared him to doug gilmour.
Unfortunately I think it’s come down to a few things:
1) He started his career off as a winger on a line with strong possession players (Backlund and Frolik). He gained a lot of confidence and ice time here and had success.
2) In his second year and third year, he was put at Centre with less skilled players and was expected to drive the line himself. He carried around players like Chiasson, Brouwer, Stajan, McGrattan etc. This isn’t a recipe for success for any skill player.
3) He’s now been paired with Janikowski, which has been better than previous, but still hasn’t meshed perfectly.
Routinely he will be driving the zone with the puck, and his linemates are changing off or are far behind Sam and he runs into 3+ players in the O-zone. Things seem to be looking up with Neal and Dube on his line last season, but we will see if Peters sticks with this matchup.