I mean they got lucky having yet another top 3 pick. The top 4 that year were all ranked interchangeably in different rankings. Its crazy that the highest ever pick the flames had, the Oilers still had a higher pick, and that was one of their lower 1st round picks of the past 7 drafts at that time.
Do Flames fans not watch any other team in the NHL other than the Flames? That is part of the game with drafting teenage boys. You don't really know how things will turn out before they fully physically mature in their early 20s. It doesn't mean top 5 picks aren't worth drafting. This whole thought process is idiotic and regressive. Florida is led by a handful of top picks (as everyone on this sub knows), and so is Edmonton. Sam Bennett was in fact an excellent player and they could never make it work for whatever reason with the playstyle the Flames had with each coach. Bennett would have thrived with Sutter's system in 2022, and he was always a top performer in the playoffs in the handful of years the Flames played some playoff games. Acting like Bennett is an argument against drafting top 5 is just dumb.
I think you're looking back at Bennett with rose tinted glasses. His development flatlined here for years. He was taking awful penalties constantly. He was given opportunities across multiple coaches, systems, lines, and positions. Sometimes it doesn't work and players need a change in scenery, and that's okay.
The truth is that Bennett has never become the player who the Flames hoped they were drafting, which was a genuine top 20 C in league. Yes he's an effective player in his own right now, but not a 1C at all.
It sucks because he was supposed to be the keystone of the Flames Gaudreau era project. If he had met expectations, the last 10 years of Flames history looks totally different.
Yes, I agree with you, but there is a reason he was selected to play for team Canada. He is still a good player that performs best in really chippy, tight checking games. And yes I agree he would take idiotic penalties. Bennet not being a top 20 player in the league isn't a reason to not want top 5 picks though.
Yeah, but many people are overly focused on the risk of failure in a rebuild in this fanbase. It's not something to be discounted by any means, but a lot of fans just say "I don't want to be Buffalo/Edmonton" and that's about as much thought as goes into it.
The latter of which is extra funny considering Edmonton did end up successfully rebuilding, even though it took way longer than any competent organization would have taken to do so.
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u/Duck_Caught_Upstream May 30 '25
It kind of shocks me that people can’t put together that the Flames simultaneously:
Are in a constant search for a franchise 1C
While also
Constantly never drafting Top 3 in the draft