National Post (National Edition)
Gilmour has faith Bennett will shine
Doug Gilmour was unaware one of his most prized students was going through such professional torment.
In the midst of an exhaustive book tour that has had him on the road for a month, the man they call Killer has yet to see Sam Bennett struggle through the 2017-18 season.
So when told the kid who scored 115 points in his last 68 games with Gilmour’s Kingston Frontenacs was pointless in all 15 Flames games thus far, he admitted the news was hard to believe.
“That shocks me,” said Gilmour, who is still GM of the Ontario Hockey League’s Frontenacs.
“I just know his compete level and I’m sure he’s frustrated and I’m sure he’s trying to do too much. As a player I know it’s a cliché, ‘but less is more.’
“He’ll come out of it. I know it’s going to affect him mentally because he’s such a strong-willed kid and he wants to succeed, so he’ll come through it.”
Gilmour took Bennett ninth overall in the 2012 OHL draft after scouting him alongside Connor McDavid on a stacked Toronto Marlboros team.
It gave Bennett an instant mentor to whom he pays tribute by wearing jersey No. 93, which Gilmour wore after leaving the Calgary Flames.
While the two have had limited communication of late, outside of a fluke summertime visit, the large heart Gilmour exhibited as a player bleeds for the 21-year-old.
“I’ve been there,” said Gilmour, who won a Stanley Cup with the Flames in 1989 as part of a 20-year NHL career that saw him record almost a point a game over 1,656 games (including playoffs) with seven teams.
“You go through these issues sometimes. I went through 10 or 11 games without a point and you struggle mentally with it. It’s a frustrating process and it gets to you.
“Obviously, you want to play well for your peers, management and your fans, and when you don’t have anything on the sheet that’s when, more than ever, you can’t worry about the points — the points will come. Your work ethic has to be doing it at the right times and right places.”
To Bennett’s credit, his inability to contribute offensively this season and in previous years hasn’t stemmed from a lack of trying.
As a physical player who also kills penalties, Bennett is still able to contribute in other ways, which is why Gilmour isn’t concerned he’ll turn things around.
“I love the kid,” said Gilmour, who will be in Calgary later this month to sign his autobiography Killer — My Life in Hockey.
“He competes. He did everything for our hockey club. I wish I could have had him a couple years ago when they kept him (in Calgary) because we had a pretty good hockey club and he would have made it that much better.”
Weighing in on the citywide debate over whether Bennett should play wing or up the middle, Gilmour said the day Bennett arrived in Kingston coach Todd Gill turned him into a centre, where he thrived.
“He played both (positions) growing up, but obviously with the Marlies team he was playing left wing with Connor McDavid so he was kind of overshadowed,” said Gilmour of the third-year Flame who was drafted fourth overall in 2014. “From the time Todd moved him into the middle he just took off.”
That’s exactly what Flames fans are waiting for now — a launching point much like Bennett’s memorable four-goal effort two years back, which came one game after he scored to end an 18-game goal drought in which he had just one assist.