Zach Benson: how good will he be this year?

[Porous Five Hole]

31 minutes ago, spndnchz said:

The sparkle in your eyes keeps me alive. 

The Cult will be at the OLG stage in Niagara Falls in October. But you’ll be paying re-sale prices if you don’t already have tix.  

[LTS]

On 8/22/2025 at 1:30 PM, pi2000 said:

Is that a good thing? 

IMO he would've been better off continuing to develop in junior playing +25min/gm.

Instead he's been pigeon holed in Buffalo during his critical developmental years, stunting his growth as an offensive contributor.

The flaw in this argument is that he's been in Buffalo during his critical developmental years. He has not played any years in the NHL where he would be beyond his critical developmental years and as such you cannot predict whether it's stunted his growth or not.  If he had played the past two years in juniors then he would have been a player who played in juniors with no NHL stats and a question of whether it would translate.  Then we'd talk about him being 21-23 and his early growth years in the NHL and still be trying to project his growth and what he would be when he hits 24.

The only way to know how this has impacted him won't be known for another few years and even then you won't know what could or could not have happened. He may never have been the player you think he was supposed to be.  

And the problem with staying in juniors is that if he's too good for that level, then it does not benefit him to play there either. You learn nothing by dominating lower competition.

The thing is, I don't think anyone would argue that the AHL was where he would have been best served but because of the system (not the team) he was unable to get there. The system could have failed him, but the Sabres did what they could which was play him in the NHL.

And given his ability to stand toe to toe (he won't really ever be eye to eye) with some pretty tough people in the NHL, I don't think it's harmed him at all.

[Archie Lee]

1 hour ago, LTS said:

The flaw in this argument is that he's been in Buffalo during his critical developmental years. He has not played any years in the NHL where he would be beyond his critical developmental years and as such you cannot predict whether it's stunted his growth or not.  If he had played the past two years in juniors then he would have been a player who played in juniors with no NHL stats and a question of whether it would translate.  Then we'd talk about him being 21-23 and his early growth years in the NHL and still be trying to project his growth and what he would be when he hits 24.

The only way to know how this has impacted him won't be known for another few years and even then you won't know what could or could not have happened. He may never have been the player you think he was supposed to be.  

And the problem with staying in juniors is that if he's too good for that level, then it does not benefit him to play there either. You learn nothing by dominating lower competition.

The thing is, I don't think anyone would argue that the AHL was where he would have been best served but because of the system (not the team) he was unable to get there. The system could have failed him, but the Sabres did what they could which was play him in the NHL.

And given his ability to stand toe to toe (he won't really ever be eye to eye) with some pretty tough people in the NHL, I don't think it's harmed him at all.

To the bolded.  It might be true, to a degree.  But I largely reject the notion.  I mean, is anybody seriously arguing that Benson would have dominated junior hockey as an 18 year old more than McDavid dominated the NHL as a 24-25 year old?  And, is anybody seriously arguing that McDavid stopped learning once he started dominating the NHL? The list of players who dominated lesser competition for a year or two in junior, post-draft, and who then went on to have great NHL careers is very long. Very long. Benson, in my view, is the sort of player who would have found many things in his game to improve on whether he was in junior, college, the AHL, or the NHL. He's not the sort of kid who would have pouted, or got lazy, or forgot about the defensive side of the game. 

 

[JohnC]

16 minutes ago, Archie Lee said:

To the bolded.  It might be true, to a degree.  But I largely reject the notion.  I mean, is anybody seriously arguing that Benson would have dominated junior hockey as an 18 year old more than McDavid dominated the NHL as a 24-25 year old?  And, is anybody seriously arguing that McDavid stopped learning once he started dominating the NHL? The list of players who dominated lesser competition for a year or two in junior, post-draft, and who then went on to have great NHL careers is very long. Very long. Benson, in my view, is the sort of player who would have found many things in his game to improve on whether he was in junior, college, the AHL, or the NHL. He's not the sort of kid who would have pouted, or got lazy, or forgot about the defensive side of the game. 

 

With respected to your comment about being able to learn when dominating at a lower level, that isn't the issue. The primary issue is whether he would have benefited more in the juniors or playing in the NHL. @LTS gave a strong argument why it made a lot of sense for him to play in the NHL given the rules that would have prohibited him from playing in the AHL. And there is another element to whether Benson would have benefited more in the juniors than the NHL i.e. physical development. It's more likely that the workout and training facilities and staff would be at a higher level in the NHL than it would have been in the juniors where a lot of his time would have been spent on buses.