What can the Calgary Flames learn from Sam Bennett's Conn Smythe run?
Sam Bennett was the highest draft pick in Calgary Flames ' franchise history, selected fourth overall in 2014.
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On Tuesday, for the second consecutive spring, Bennett raised the Stanley Cup high above his head. As a bonus, he received one of the NHL's highest individual honours, saluted as the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP.
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If Bennett, who turns 29 later this week, opts to leave Florida and sign with the highest bidder, he is poised for a huge cha-ching as an unrestricted free agent.
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Bennett skated for seven seasons at the Saddledome. When he was traded away in April 2021, shipped to the Sunshine State for a forward prospect and a second-round pick, he seemed like a guy who would benefit from a change of scenery. Boy, has he ever.
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It might be better than rooting for the archrival Edmonton Oilers, but it has been bittersweet for Flames fans to watch two former faves leading the repeat in Florida.
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While Matthew Tkachuk essentially forced his way out of Calgary, informing the organization that he wasn't willing to stick around on a long-term extension, Bennett was sold at a bargain rate to avoid the risk of losing him in the expansion draft.
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This isn't a case of sour grapes over one that got away, but there are some lingering lessons from Bennett's stint in Calgary. Here's what the Flames can learn, and how it can apply to the guys on the current roster:
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Bennett led all lamp-lighters this spring with 15 playoff goals, including a record 13 in enemy rinks.
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A superb stat-line, for sure, but not necessarily a shocker for folks in Calgary. They'll remind you that this dude has always elevated his game in the big moments. 'Playoff Sam Bennett' was folklore around these parts.
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Inside Casey O'Brien's bedroom closet at home in Martha's Vineyard, Mass., you'll find several pieces of paper, some with words and others with pictures, taped to the inside of the door. They're a visual reminder of everything she wants to achieve in hockey, and a glimpse of what she's working toward every time she opens the closet door. As she checked goals one off the list, she'd move each slip of paper from one side of the closet to the opposite. Earning a Division 1 college hockey scholarship? She checked that off when she went to the University of Wisconsin. Making the Under-18 Women's World Championship? O'Brien did that twice, and won gold with Team USA in 2018. Winning a national championship? She did that three times in five seasons with the University of Wisconsin Badgers, including this past season. Winning the Patty Kazmaier Award as the best player in college hockey? She was finally able to cross that goal off the list in her 5th year of college. 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"Her vision while skating is really, really good," Vincent said. "She has great lateral mobility, the ability to cut and turn on a dime. And she's fast." O'Brien went to a Shattuck-St. Mary's hockey camp when she was 12. After one on-ice session, Team USA players Monique and Jocelyne Lamoureux told Stafford that he had to recruit O'Brien to the Minnesota prep school. She was the best player they'd seen at the camp. "She's always just been such a fluid, wonderful skater, but she's one of those ones who her hockey IQ, and her finesse with her hands, correlates well with her foot speed," Stafford said. "You can have kids with good hands and kind of slow feet or whatever, but she's got a combination of everything." WATCH | Did the PWHL's expansion draft go too far? Did the PWHL expansion draft go too far? 8 days ago Duration 1:18 CBC Sports' Karissa Donkin explains how the league's two newest teams, Seattle and Vancouver, have rosters ready to win right away. O'Brien would spend three seasons at the school. Many times, coaches at the prep school focus on teaching their teenaged hockey players the fundamentals, including how to show up every day and work hard. But O"Brien already knew how to do that. She learned from an early age how to channel her competitiveness. Over two decades at Shattuck-St. Mary's, Stafford has coached lots of future pros and Olympians. The ones who are most successful are players he calls killers, who have the competitive fire to be at their best when it matters the most. O'Brien fits into that category. Since she's left Shattuck, Stafford will text O'Brien from time to time. Sometimes, he'll send her a picture of a lion or another wild predator. "Because that's what she is on the ice, offensively," he said. Dominant Badgers team In her final season at Wisconsin, O'Brien was one piece of a stacked roster that also included Edwards, Harvey, Kirsten Simms and Lacey Eden, to name a few. O'Brien was cleared to play only days before the season began, after she had off-season wrist surgery to fix a lingering issue. But that didn't hold her, or the Badgers, back. The team finished with a 38-1-2 record, and O'Brien had a dominant season offensively on the way to smashing Knight's record. The latter is something that's hard for her to grasp, having grown up watching Knight compete in an American jersey. Knight even texted her before the game, telling O'Brien she hoped she'd break her record. "I do think it's a reflection of the teams that I've been on at Wisconsin, the teammates I've been fortunate enough to play with and just whatever contributions I've been able to make for the team," she said. When O'Brien, Edwards and Harvey were named the top-three finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Award, it was was only the second time in history that all three finalists came from the same school. 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