New Jersey Devils: Beau Bennett Is Not Another Kyle Palmieri
By Luke Manton
After Kyle Palmieri proved to be a steal of a trade for the New Jersey Devils, many fans asked for a similar type of trade at the draft this year. Newest Devil Beau Bennett will not satisfy that desire.
It has been exactly one year since the trade that sent Kyle Palmieri from the Anaheim Ducks to the New Jersey Devils became official. In that time, we’ve seen Palmieri enjoy monumental success in his one season wearing a Devils uniform. Palmieri set new career highs in goals (30) and points (57) by wide margins last season. As Devils fans may remember, Palmieri was acquired on the cheap, costing only a second round pick in last year’s draft (one of two – they used the other on G Mackenzie Blackwood), and a third round pick in this year’s draft (one of three – they used the other two on RW Joseph Anderson and C Brandon Gignac). To say that Ray Shero got his money’s worth in the Palmieri trade is an understatement, especially given that he was still able to make draft picks in the rounds which he gave picks away to acquire Palmieri.
Upon completion of this past season, many fans hoped that Shero would be able to make another trade at this year’s draft that would look similar to the Palmieri deal from last year. On Day 2 of this year’s draft, Shero sent the 77th overall pick to the Penguins in exchange for RW Beau Bennett. Shero and Bennett have a history – Shero drafted Bennett with the 20th overall pick in 2010 when he was the Penguins general manager. So, a young forward in exchange for a draft pick – on paper, it seems to be a similar type of deal as the Palmieri trade. The question that remains is, will Beau Bennett be this year’s version of Kyle Palmieri for the Devils?
The short answer – don’t get your hopes up.
While the two players share certain similarities – Palmieri is 25, Bennett is 24, both play RW, both are former 1st round picks – their playing careers have panned out differently. Palmieri’s first full season of professional hockey after being drafted was 2010-2011. In that year and the years since, the following are his total games played by year, either in the NHL or a combination of games played in the NHL and AHL – 72, 69, 75, 71, 59, and 82. Clearly, staying on the ice is not an issue for Palmieri. Bennett, on the other hand, has developed a reputation for being oft-injured, and rightly so. Beginning in 2012-2013, Bennett’s totals for games played by year are as follows – 65, 24, 51, and 33. In those four seasons, Bennett has played a total of 129 NHL games, an average of just over 30 per season, or less than half of a full year.
As far as their play on the ice, it was widely accepted around the NHL that Palmieri was a top-6 caliber talent – the Ducks simply didn’t have the room on their roster to give him quality ice time. He proved that notion true while playing top line minutes for the Devils last year. Even with Anaheim, with limited ice time, Palmieri tallied 43 goals and 47 assists for 90 points in a total of 198 NHL games, or 0.45 points per game. In Bennett’s much more limited NHL time with the Penguins, Bennett has managed only 16 goals and 29 assists for 45 points in 129 NHL games. Upon his arrival in NJ, Palmieri at least had developed a reputation for being a capable goal scorer – the same cannot be said for Bennett. While a 3rd round pick is not exactly a hefty price to pay for an NHL roster player via trade, Devils fans should certainly not be getting their hopes up in regards to Bennett’s potential for production this upcoming season. We’ll see where head coach John Hynes ultimately slots him into the lineup – if he can stay healthy.