It’s mid-January. The Penguins are locked in a tight 1-1 battle against Washington in a key divisional match-up at PPG Paints Arena. The bitter rivals entered the game tied for third place in the Metro, five points behind the front-running Flyers and three behind the Islanders. Points are critical.
As he is wont to do, Capitals marauder Tom Wilson is circling like a shark in the neutral zone. He spies Pens defenseman Brian Dumoulin battling for a loose puck along the side boards.
Like a heat-seeking missile, Wilson locks onto his target. In a matter of strides he accelerates to full speed. Timing his hit perfectly, he buries his shoulder into Dumoulin’s chest just as the black-and-gold defender retrieves the puck and turns to skate up ice.
Dumoulin goes down in a heap.
Wilson hovers nearby, admiring his handiwork. No penalty is called. Dumoulin needs to be helped to his skates before being escorted off the ice.
Scenario 1
While the rest of the Pens avoid eye contact, an agitated Kris Letang skates toward Wilson and tries to engage the big winger before being restrained by a linesman. While Letang continues to chirp, Wilson laughs.
Five minutes later, with the Pens down a defenseman and the Caps’ heavyweight providing a screen, Alex Ovechkin blows the puck past goalie Tristan Jarry from the high slot. Momentum firmly on their side, the Caps pound two more shots past Jarry and coast to an easy 4-1 victory.
Wilson finishes the game a plus-three, with seven hits and two assists. He’s named the No. 2 star.
Scenario 2
Suddenly, Wilson’s struck in the side of the head by a gloved fist. Momentarily stunned, he turns and catches a punch…this one bare-knuckled…square on the chin. He quickly sheds his gloves and stick and returns fire, but can’t gain a clear-cut advantage. Finally, he and his assailant tumble to the ice.
As Wilson and his foe regain their skates and are separated by the linesmen, he catches the jersey number and name of his antagonist. Ninety-three. Bennett.
The Pens’ bench erupts, banging their sticks against the boards in appreciation. The crowd roars. Suitably inspired, the black and gold strikes for three goals in a little over eight minutes to snatch a 4-1 lead. T.J. Oshie scores in the final period to add a dash of drama, but the outcome is long since decided.
The fight was the turning point.
Why I am playing out these rather elaborate and divergent fantasy scenarios?
All of the teams that made it to conference finals this season employed a more balanced style that includes a heavier, physical element. It continues a trend that began with the Caps winning the Cup in 2017-18, and the Blues grinding down the opposition last year. Among their victims, a skilled, tough Bruins squad.
Scanning the Pens’ roster, it doesn’t require a degree in rocket science to discern that we’re still trying to win with the speed game that carried us a Cup back in 2015-16. Not that there’s anything wrong with being fast, Lord knows. But you gotta have some grind to go with the jets. In that area, the Pens fall woefully short.
I’m not saying our boys are timid. We did finish fourth in the league in hits with 1884, so we do have guys who’ll stick their nose in. But our lack of size and snarl when push comes to shove mitigates those numbers to an extent.
To digress, a hit from Brandon Tanev is going to exact less of a toll than a hit from, say, Ryan Reaves.
That’s where Sam Bennett or a player of his ilk would help. No, the 24-year-old Ontario native wouldn’t have the Wilson’s of the world quaking in their skates. But he does have a documented history of coming to the aid of a teammate. In one of those instances, he put a pretty fair whupping on ex-Pen Ian Cole. In another…present Pen Marcus Pettersson.
Although hardly a behemoth at 6’1” and 195 pounds, Bennett throws ‘em pretty fair for a guy his size. And he’s fearless.
Why Bennett? He’s affordable, for one. He’s signed for $2.55 million through the coming season, or roughly what you might expect to pay for Jared McCann. He might be a nice fit at third-line center. Perhaps the elusive, long-sought replacement for Nick Bonino.
Is Bennett a bit of a gamble? Yes. His production has declined since he netted 18 goals as a 19-year-old rookie in 2015-16 (only eight in 52 games this season). Since 2016-17, he’s seen split duty at wing and center.
Still, his faceoff work has improved (53.6 percent) over the past three seasons, along with his possession numbers. He’s skilled…you don’t get drafted fourth overall by accident. And he has sand.
Plus, come playoff time he finds the net. Bennett led the Flames in postseason scoring in each of the past two years. He has 11 goals in 30 career playoff games, a 30-goal pace over 82 games. You can’t coach that. Guys either elevate their game in the postseason or they don’t.
How to land him? Perhaps an even-up swap for McCann would work. Ironically, Jared also made the NHL as a 19-year-old.
Just supposin’.
Kudos for PenguinPoop
I’m pleased to announce that PenguinPoop has been included on a list sponsored by Feedspot titled Top 50 Ice Hockey Blogs.
On behalf of founding fathers and early contributors Phil Krundle, Reg Dunlop, Disco Stu, Horse, Southside Shultzie, Art Vandelay, Coach Bombay, Doug MacRay, Champ Kind and Joey Wales and present contributors Other Rick and James Arthurs, not to mention our faithful readers and commenters (wish I could name you all), we’re truly honored to be included.
Bennett looks like fools gold to me. You want to value him based on a tiny sample of playoffs games and ignore the poor quality his 5 regular seasons. His last playoff also inflates his price to high risk levels.
And one more thing to consider: you have to make the playoffs first. This is no given next year and history suggests that he won’t help much with that.
Hey Stratton,
I won’t disagree that Bennett’s a bit of a crap-shoot, based on his declining regular-season production. However, he’s caught behind three pretty decent centers in Calgary…Elias Lindholm, Sean Monahan and Mikael Backlund.
It would be interesting to see what he could do with a change of scenery. And I’m going to push back about his playoff production. Granted, 30 games isn’t a huge sample size. But I think it’s significant enough to establish a trend. He’s been to the playoffs four times and has produced in each instance. Including the three goals he notched in 11 playoff games as an 18-year-old in 2014-15 prior to his NHL rookie season.
Not that I’m trying to draw an apples-to-apples comparison. But Sidney Crosby’s averaged .405 goals per playoff game. Bennett .367.
Not too shabby.
Rick
update….
Jared just resigned, two years.
Hey Rick,
Trading for Bennett as a 3rd line Center – it is worth a shot but it may not be the slam dunk some people here in the burgh think, particularly if the team trades Murray without an exit strategy for that young Goalie.
Bennett may not be the player many Pens fans think he is. On June 25th of this year MGMacGillvray of SBNation wrote “The time has finally come, the Calgary Flames should trade Sam Bennett in the next offseason, whenever that happens. After five seasons without any real development, it’s time to move on from the 4th overall pick from 2014 and highest selection in Flames franchise history.” (The Flames Should Trade Sam Bennett before 2020-21)
MGMacGillvray does point out that “The lack of development can’t be solely blamed on Bennett either, the team hasn’t really put him in great opportunities to succeed over the years, with regular linemates like Troy Brouwer specifically standing out.”
It doesn’t take long to see the truth in this statement. A quick look at Bennett’s with or without advanced stats shows that he does seem to get the short end of the stick when it comes to line mates. In the last 3 seasons, 5 on 5, Jankowski has the most TOI with Bennett (1043:07). His CORSI with Bennett over that time is 51.34 but without Bennett is 49.66, so Bennett has to bring him up. Ryan and Hathaway have spent the 3rd and 4th most amount of time with Bennett among Forwards and share the same CORSI results, needing Bennett to bring up their numbers (55.15 and 53.63 with and 50.74 and 50.73 without respectively). Of the top 4 Forwards that have played with Bennett only Backlund has a slightly better CORSI without Bennett than with Bennett (54.32 v 55.17)
Looking at those numbers – I am willing to take a gamble, particularly with the edge Bennett brings.
However, we still have Sully as Coach and chances are he won’t play Bennett any different than Calgary did or any different than Sully played Reaves. Bennett will likely not get any quality ice time or wingers.
Furthermore, as MGMacGillvray points out “Since the career high 36 points in his rookie year, Bennett has finished between 26-27 points the last three seasons and was on pace for only 19 points over 82 games this year.” I would definitely start out as low as possible and not throw away anything I didn’t have to, to get Bennett. In other words, I would definitely want at least a 2nd round pick with Bennett in exchange for Murray.
More importantly, if the team is truly in “Win now mode” they aren’t going to do it with DeSmith as their backup. JR is going to have to make more trades and free up more money for a real Goalie Backup.
There is talk amongst the talking heads in Carolina to trade Pesce for a scorer (they have a prospect ready to come up – what a novel idea). So, trade Zucker to Carolina for Pesce (RHD), move McCann back to wing, give Poulin a chance a get a RHD that would make Letang expendable, saving about $1 million in the exchange.
Now trade Letang for a quality backup Goalie and Picks or Prospects
Thanks Other Rick,
And thanks for doing the digging on the with-or-without-you stats. I confess, my desire to acquire Bennett was based more on my admiration for the type of player he is, rather than on any hard numbers.
You certainly solidified my case for acquiring him.
Since I dealt mostly with intangibles, I’ll mention that Hockey’s Future touted him as a potential team leader. Here’s what they had to say about him in the Talent Analysis portion of their scouting report:
“What is not a question is his talent level and willingness to compete in all three zones. Bennett is an elite talent when it comes to puck movement and on-ice vision who elevates his game to the level of competition. He plays a tough brand of hockey and projects as a team leader-type.”
Perhaps a change of scenery would be just what the doctor ordered to help him realize his early potential.
Rick
Way to go Penguinpoop!!!!
I don’t wanna keep repeating myself…..but I have always said you need some big, tough forwards to some dirty work in the corners and in front of the net and to do some pushing and fighting, when needed. Especially in the playoffs.
I would love to see Sam in black and gold…I am also hearing Calgary looking for a goalie, both of theirs are UFAs.
So why not Mcann and Murray for Bennett and a high end prospect like.. forward Dimitry Zavgorodniy or d-man Alexander Yelesin plus a pick maybe a 2nd rounder??
Just a thought!!
Hey Pen’s4ever,
I like the way you think …:)
Rick
Rick
Great article “Love Bennett” – he’s exactly what the doctor ordered. I
would take him and a 2nd rounder for Murray.
Also, I thought your comparison of getting hit by Reaves vs Tanev was
great – I’ve been preaching this for awhile – Defenseman are a little slower
to the puck with 240lbs coming at them.
I don’t know how JR pulls it off but we need toughness & size in a major
way.
Thanks Mike,
I wasn’t even sure this was going to coalesce into anything coherent, but somehow it fell together.
I mostly wanted to put in a plug for Bennett. Would love to have him…or a guy an awful lot like him. We need some push-back and, not that Bennett’s a heavyweight, but he’s more than willing to stick up for a teammate and capable with his dukes, too.
I just think the team would functional differently with Bennett and another guy like him in the lineup. I think the Pens would be a little braver…a little more willing to mix it up.
I didn’t realize when I first began to target him that he’s a former fourth overall pick. You generally don’t get selected that high by mistake. So he’s got some skill. I don’t know why his regular-season production isn’t higher. But I love the fact that he comes alive in the postseason.
Combined with his sand? I’d really love to get the guy.
Rick