With the trade deadline quickly approaching and trade options are circulating, the Calgary Flames are expected to make some sort of deal by then. But it won’t be Sam Bennett.
Trade deadline day gives everyone mixed emotions. On one hand, if your team is tanking, you’d like some new faces. But on the other hand, you also grow some sort of attachment to the players on your favourite team. With trade deadline quickly approaching, the Calgary Flames have been in some conversations.
It mainly has to do with the Ottawa Senators and some names going around there. And with speculations going around, people are also throwing out some trade possibilities. Sam Bennett‘s name has been thrown into that mix. But he most likely won’t be traded anytime soon.
The Calgary Flames have a knack for being patient with their players. Albeit, sometimes too patient, but it pays off. They were patient with Mark Giordano, they were patient with Mikael Backlund, they’ve been patient with Mark Jankowski, and they continue to be patient with Sam Bennett.
Flames fans love Backlund right now and he’s easily one of the most underrated two-way centres in the game. But he still struggled a bit at the start of his career. Now, I like Bennett on the wing better than at centre, but he’s also shaping up to be a decent two-way player. If we look at his career so far and Backlund’s start, it’s quite similar.
| First full season | Games played | Points |
| Mikael Backlund (2010-11) | 73 | 10-15–25 |
| Sam Bennett (2015-16) | 77 | 18-18–36 |
| Second season | Games played | Points |
| Mikael Backlund (2011-12) | 41 | 4-7–11 |
| Sam Bennett (2016-17) | 81 | 13-13–26 |
While Backlund wasn’t that offensively gifted, he’s always put up good possession metrics since the start of his career. And while Bennett hasn’t had that great of possession numbers (between 48-50% CF%), he does have the slight edge in offence.
Backlund didn’t start improving until the lockout year in 2012-13 which was his fourth (relatively full-length) season. Albeit, most of that was under Jay Feaster and not Brad Treliving, but it just goes to show that patience pays off sometimes.
Now, while I don’t think Backlund and Bennett are players who are completely alike, I think they’re still comparable in a sense. Treliving has made a point to say that they’re not giving up on Bennett, and he’s said it multiple times.
In Backlund’s recent contract extension, Treliving also made a note of talking about patience.
Related Story: Flames sign Mikael Backlund to six-year extension
Via Calgary Flames:
"“I think he’s a perfect example of patience, of us being patient with young players but also with him being patient in finding the right role.“I’ll be honest, when I got here I didn’t know that much about him. I knew Mikael Backlund was a pretty good player. Now that I’ve been around him three years, I’ve discovered he’d be a hard guy to live without.[…]“He helps you win. I’ve been very clear that you build teams through the middle of the ice. (Sean) Monahan, Backlund, (Mark) Jankowski, Sam Bennett … you can never have enough centres and defencemen.“The other piece is that he really wanted to be in Calgary. As he says, this is like home to him, which was a big part of it, too.”"
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With people throwing Bennett’s name out in the mix, I don’t think he’s going anywhere anytime soon.