Sam Bennett - most needed change of scenery ever or hot streak?

[OvermanKingGainer]

I think it’s a win-win. Two 2nds is pretty good value.

No, it's a win(FLA)-lose(CGY)

The only reason Flames fans aren't livid is because the Flames don't deserve Sam Bennett. They did him dirty.

 

[OVO16]

So glad he's taking off. I tried to tell people he's a change of scenery away from breaking out.

 

[Mobiandi]

He spent 6 seasons in Calgary and I'll never understand why we never gave our 4th overall pick a stretch of 10 games to let him play in all situations and centre our best players.

It'll be a miracle if those two 2nds pan out into NHLers let alone a guy with Bennett's floor

 

[BB88]

the huby-bennett-duclair line is lit

Crazy good 2nd line.

Lundell- Hornqvist should really make for a great 3rd line next year.


Florida is one of the most fun teams to watch currently.
They are here to stay

 

[ijuka]

I think it’s a win-win. Two 2nds is pretty good value.

What if you pick two busts with those seconds?

 

[Ryuji Yamazaki]

What if you pick two busts with those seconds?

What if you pick Ryan O Reilly and Patrice Bergeron?

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

To me this is a question that will take a long time to answer. We’ve seen streaks of hot play from Sam before. Can he maintain it has always been the question with Sam.

 

[Johnnybegood13]

He spent 6 seasons in Calgary and I'll never understand why we never gave our 4th overall pick a stretch of 10 games to let him play in all situations and centre our best players.

It'll be a miracle if those two 2nds pan out into NHLers let alone a guy with Bennett's floor

Because after Hartley left we had a moron coach in Gulutzan who couldn't coach my grandsons pee-wee team and then Peters came in and wanted him to play a tough crashing winger on the 4th line. I'm happy for Sam and even happier he's in the east

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Wait, is he actually playing well? I never saw anything in Calgary to make me think he deserved a higher slot, but then again I’m a bit numbed to seeing players misused.

 

[BB88]

To me this is a question that will take a long time to answer. We’ve seen streaks of hot play from Sam before. Can he maintain it has always been the question with Sam.

Nobody should expect this pace but he’s playing with the best winger he’s ever had on his line and he also has Barkov eating the toughest matchups in front of him.

Pretty ideal situation for him, Lundell will likely start to challenge him in few years time though

 

[Furio]

I know he came into the league as a teenager but I still can’t believe he’s only 24..

 

[42]

Florida will have an interesting decision in regards to his next contract. Do they bet on his potential and give him a longer deal that would be a steal if he does achieve his potential (something like Calgary did with Lindholm) or do they go a shorter route with a prove-it 2 year deal.

 

[thaman8765678]

To me this is a question that will take a long time to answer. We’ve seen streaks of hot play from Sam before. Can he maintain it has always been the question with Sam.

I mean to be fair we never really gave him top line and powerplay time for any length.

He wasn't great for us obviously but let's not pretend we didn't give him 2 plugs on his line for most of his career.

 

[cg98]

Calgary is where things go to die.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Like I said earlier, I still think he's got Kadri-like upside. Now that he's actually being regularly used with some talent on his line, he's showing it.

Honestly have no clue what Calgary was thinking with how they utilized him for much of his career.

 

[42]

Calgary is where things go to die.

Lindholm says hi.

 

[Zirakzigil]

Honestly have no clue what Calgary was thinking with how they utilized him for much of his career.

Its pretty simple, they werent.

 

[Sweetpotato]

I think he's the leading case for clubs that draft high end talent, you need to find a middle ground of playing time that they need vs what they earn. You can't gift anything but you can't not play the player. Youngsters are going to make mistakes.

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

Honestly have no clue what Calgary was thinking with how they utilized him for much of his career.

Calgary's roster construction problem has always been to keep adding onetrick pony specialists. Lindholm, Mangiapane, Backlund and Gaudreau aside, the rest of their roster:

Sean Monahan - Shooting in the slot specialists with poor footspeed

Matthew Tkachuk - Netfront tip specialist with poor footspeed

Milan Lucic - Netfront screen specialist

Dillon Dube - straight line fast 5v5 player

Nordstrom - PK specialist

Ryan - PK specialist

etc.

Here's the problem

Specialists need to play in their role otherwise they are useless.

And the Flames had so many damn specialists, year after year getting their roles, a jack-of-all-trades center just gets asked to do whatever is left.

Except nothing is left.

Sam Bennett is good at everything, and plays better offensively when he gets a consistent shift.

But the team was so focused on having specialists for each role, they didn't stop to think of the literal opportunity cost.

I think teams whose bottom sixes are just filler players have more success because they give the jacks of all trades types the icetime they need to play sharp and confident.

 

[Cats2TheCup]

I'd like to see Sam for a full year on the cats before I really evaluate who he is. It seems premature but I'll tell y'all what I see. But so far he seems to be what Huby needed on his line. He's saved plays from breaking down in a variety of ways, has shown he can finish, wins important face offs, keeps posession on power play, throws the body, scraps well, and just seems to be that steady bridge between Hubys playmaking and Duclairs speed. They look like they trust him to do what they need. I really hope this is the perfect situation for him to flourish and this continues. Looking forward to seeing him in the playoffs.

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

I'd like to see Sam for a full year on the cats before I really evaluate who he is. It seems premature but I'll tell y'all what I see. But so far he seems to be what Huby needed on his line. He's saved plays from breaking down in a variety of ways, has shown he can finish, wins important face offs, keeps posession on power play, throws the body, scraps well, and just seems to be that steady bridge between Hubys playmaking and Duclairs speed. They look like they trust him to do what they need. I really hope this is the perfect situation for him to flourish and this continues. Looking forward to seeing him in the playoffs.

I hope he sticks on that top PP and gets a chance to shoot a bit more like this

 

[SufferingCatFan]

Acknowledge that still relatively small sample size. A couple of things are now clear. Bennet has the ability to be a two-way center--worse case he is a 3c, best case 2c. Bennet appears to be working out for the Cats. This is not to suggest that Flames lost the trade. They needed to trade Bennet and got good value.

Cats appear to have gone through a complete rebuild in less than a year. On offense, six of top 9 are new. On defense, 3-4 of top six are new, depending on the night. Zito deserves high praise.

 

[Burkeocet]

I’d say it’s a mixture of a hot streak and better usage in a new situation. Bennett will be huge in the playoffs too

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

Time for the Flames to once again begin the long journey of finding a young centre.

 

[Mobiandi]

Honestly have no clue what Calgary was thinking with how they utilized him for much of his career.

It's what happens when you hire non-NHL quality coaches who can't see the big picture.

Gaudreau-Monahan-x worked
Tkachuk-Backlund-Frolik/Mangiapane worked

So there wasn't any room for Bennett because there was never any planning for the long-term future.

Monahan was never pressured to develop his game because Gaudreau could always find him with key passes and now we have a rapidly declining guy whose best seasons are behind him at age 26.

Frolik got preferential treatment over Bennett because we were in "win-now" mode so when he turned to crap, our shutdown line became toast.

Tkachuk meshed with Backlund and was never pressured to develop his game so now we have a guy who's way off the pace of the game most nights because he can't skate.

But there was a ton of pressure on Bennett to reinvent himself because he couldn't make Jankowski, PTO Versteeg, Chiasson, Rieder, Brouwer, Hathaway, Lucic, Nordstrom perform above expectations. Funny enough, he always performed when he got crumbs with Gaudreau and he was a huge threat when he centered Dube in the playoffs. So naturally, he started the season on this RW because of our garbage depth there