Calgary Flames

On Brouwer's struggles and Bennett's next contract
May 4, 2017, 12:07 PM ET [16 Comments]
Todd Cordell
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Brad Treliving has made a lot of great moves since taking over the Calgary Flames. Signing Troy Brouwer sure wasn't one of them.

I talked at length throughout the season about Brouwer's lack of production and how the likes of Garnet Hathaway, Matt Stajan, and Alex Chiasson, among others, were more efficient point producers at 5v5. That's one thing. It's another to be an absolute anchor in possession and make all of your teammates worse.

Brouwer played at least 150 minutes at 5v5 with five different forwards this season. He had a negative impact on all of them.



Kris Versteeg and Sam Bennett (that poor young soul) were Brouwer's most frequent linemates and they were substantially better off without him.

Brouwer didn't have a horrendous impact on Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan -- mainly because they're good enough to hold their own even with Brouwer -- but he didn't produce so he can't ride shotgun on the top line, especially considering how well Micheal Ferland fared in that spot.

Even when Glen Gulutzan stashed Brouwer on the 4th line he caused problems. I mean, look what he did to Matty Franchise!

Let's check how Brouwer fared with the defensemen. Maybe there was a combo that somehow garnered good results?



Yeah...no.

Brouwer was a big time anchor across the board and, given he'll be 32 by October and power forwards tend to age poorly, it's not going to get any better with time.

I don't know how to get rid of Brouwer's contract -- maybe give Vegas a solid asset so they take him in the expansion draft -- but Treliving really needs to find a way.

Not only does Brouwer make the team worse on the ice, but his contract hinders Treliving's ability to make it better.

**

Kent Wilson touched on this over at Flames Nation but I wonder how much of Sam Bennett's struggles had to do with playing a good chunk of his season on Brouwer's line.

I know Brouwer's presence doesn't explain Bennett's inability to stay out of the box, for example, but Bennett was a near 52% possession player away from Brouwer and only 44% with Brouwer. For perspective, there was a smaller possession gap between Nashville (51.5%) and Arizona (45.1) than Bennett with and without Brouwer.

The bright side, if you'll call it that, is Bennett's next contract will probably come in at a cheap price and he seems like a solid bet to rebound assuming he's not attached at the hip with Brouwer again.