So far for the 2023 draft class 4 players are currently playing in the NHL. Bedard, Carlsson, Fantilli and our beautiful boy Benson. Here’s how they look so far with \~15 games remaining in their first season.
Some notes:
* Bedard is going to be/is elite but doesn’t play defense
* Carlsson & Benson showing strong 2-way games as 18 year olds
* Look at all the rookie PENALTIES% and then look at Bensons. For a rookie hes clearly getting picked on and I’m not sure why. If Benson was being called on penalties fairly and goes from 12% to 80-90% which is more likely, his WAR looks even better
* Extrapolating on this, Bensons card is extremely promising in my opinion. Penalties, Finishing and the PP are the 3 areas where hes lacking. Those 3 areas are some of the easiest to improve. Penalities will just get better next year once he doesn’t have a target on his back. Finishing and PP will just get better as he develops.
* While Benson and Leo both have 9 goals, Benson’s are all at EV and Leo has 6 at EV. Benson is only 2 EV goals behind Fantilli this year.
* Benson has 23 even strength points. 7 more than Carlsson and one less than Fantilli. That is also pretty impressive considering Benson is looked at as more of a all around player when Fantilli was hyped as a offensive machine.
Still super early in all these guys careers but I’ve been super happy with Benson this year and I think the Sabres got extremely luck that he fell to us. I’m curious to see how these numbers look in 5 years.
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Edit:
So there seems to be a lot of discussion if Benson actually is getting bad penalties called against him or if its actually his fault. Here you go. I posted this in a comment but just to make sure everyone can see this (5 pens shown):
[https://twitter.com/femboyautoparts/status/1762641443288412629](https://twitter.com/femboyautoparts/status/1762641443288412629)
[https://twitter.com/CrossSwordsPod/status/1712615080313974974](https://twitter.com/CrossSwordsPod/status/1712615080313974974)
[https://twitter.com/CrossSwordsPod/status/1762635859285700772](https://twitter.com/CrossSwordsPod/status/1762635859285700772)
NOTED GOON ZACH BENSON 2023-24 PENALTY HIGHLIGHT REEL
ONLY THE VERY BEST pic.twitter.com/SzDS3rO9Lg
— #1 Ukkolyte (@femboyautoparts) February 28, 2024
by le0nardlikespizza
9 Comments
Bensons WAR is that low off of just PP, finishing and Penalties? That’s crazy considering everything else is above average.
During a (away)broadcast a couple weeks ago, I remember them saying something about the Sabres complaining about penalties/non calls a lot. Guys like Skinner never shut up about it, always yapping at the refs. And refs get really fed up with that over years and years. I think, refs are either taking it out on Benson, or trying to “teach” him a lesson early in his career
Someone mentioned that Benson uses his stick a lot and that seems to be getting him in trouble.
He is being called fairly for penalties. If you watch the games, he’s out of position and uses his stick and takes terrible penalties. A few of them were late in the third tied or only down 1
Benson is already killing penalties. I think that’s pretty impressive. I know Donny likes to invest in the kids but he’s good at it too. He gets on the forecheck and wins pucks and just does little things that coaches and players love.
Carlson is so fucking good. Doesn’t get the attention he deserves. Looks like a young mats sundin out there
Mcdavid was pretty bad defensively early in his career, I expect bedard to prove in that department
I would just like to add as a Sabres fan from Ohio. Don’t forget that fantilli has been out for a hot minute with a laceration, so there’s a chance his stats may truly vary at the end of the day. But great write up, the future is bright in Buffalo
NHL referees tend to be little bitches. So, pointing out that Benson isn’t getting treated fairly doesn’t do what you think it’ll do. You think that the refs will realize that they were wrong – and start calling it fairly. That’s not what happens. Instead, they get pissed off that you pointed out their corruption and will spend literally years punishing you for it.
Look no further than Alex Burrows. A ref intentionally threw a game because he was pissed about something Burrows had done in a previous game. Burrows was, rightfully, pissed off – and mentioned to the press how the referee had told him that he was going to get him back later that game (and then did).
Did the referees act honorably after this happened? Not on your life! The referees spent – literally – the next 2+ years calling Canucks games unfairly (likely costing the Canucks a Stanley Cup – go watch what Boston was allowed to get away with that series compared to what the Sedins were getting called for, it was absolutely disgusting).
And it wasn’t just the referees who acted dishonorably – the league clearly pressured all their media contacts to run hit-pieces on Burrows (the hit-pieces the CBC ran are utterly shameful, especially coming from a news organization).
The referee cheated, costing the Canucks a game – and the league/media ran hit-pieces *on Burrows*, not the ref. Think about that for a second!
The league stood 100% behind the cheating ref. Then, like a year later, they quietly ended his career and he never reffed again.
^This tells you that the league knew they were wrong. They knew a cheating ref had to go – yet they still punished Vancouver and Alex Burrows for literally years afterwards. Just for being a whistleblower. It was absolutely disgusting. The entire league (and the entire hockey media) were shown to be utterly corrupt.
So, yeah, pointing this out is only going to get Benson singled out for even longer – and he’ll only get *even worse* treatment.