Back in 2014, the Calgary Flames made Sam Bennett the highest drafted player in club history when they selected him at fourth overall. Six years later, it’s unclear what, precisely, he is or could become at the National Hockey League level.

Coming off yet another ordinary regular season followed by a superb playoffs, the question is what we can expect from Bennett in a crucial 2020-21 season.

A product of the Toronto area, Bennett played his hockey with the York Simcoe association and the Toronto Marlboros, two places where he played on the left side of Connor McDavid. Bennett moved to centre when he joined the Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs and was pretty good at it. His first two seasons with Kingston established him as one of the premier talents in junior hockey and he was selected fourth overall by the Flames in the 2014 NHL Draft – he was the top-rated North American skater among that year’s crop according to Central Scouting.

At the NHL Combine, Bennett couldn’t do a pull up – he infamously made fun of that “deficiency” on TSN’s draft coverage that year by going to a playground and doing a bunch of pull-ups. But some testing during a strong performance in Calgary’s 2014 NHL camp revealed that Bennett had a lingering shoulder injury and required surgery. So rather than make his NHL debut, he went under the knife and then went back to Kingston for the remainder of the OHL season. But Bennett was rewarded for his hard work, making his NHL debut in Game 82 of the 2014-15 season and then playing a superb playoff year that earned him the hopeful moniker of “18-Year-Old Sam Bennett.”

The following season saw Bennett play on the left side of Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik. To nobody’s shock, he looked great. But Bennett’s role became muddled in subsequent seasons, as new coach Glen Gulutzan moved him to centre in 2016-17 and he was relied upon (as a 20-year-old) to anchor a line including Kris Versteeg and Troy Brouwer – it didn’t work.

The following seasons saw a similar pattern: coaches, often new ones, asking how to spark Bennett, then giving him a weird role with inconsistent expectations. Sometimes he was a centre. Sometimes he was a winger. But as his spot got muddled, newly drafted forwards leap-frogged him – 2016 pick Matthew Tkachuk became indispensable alongside Backlund and Frolik, while 2015 pick Andrew Mangiapane followed soon after and has seemingly staked a claim to a top six spot.

Bennett isn’t 18-years-old anymore. He’s 24 and has played five full seasons at the NHL level. And while he’s definitely an NHL talent and occasionally a really good NHL player, his niche and ongoing role haven’t become as clear as they have for the likes of Tkachuk and Mangiapane. The old phrase goes “you are what you consistently do”. For Bennett, he’s been consistently inconsistent, and while some of that has to do with how he’s been used, it’s been a feature of his game for five NHL seasons – if you ask yourself any question about the qualities of his NHL game, such as if he can drive play or carry a line, the answer is often just “sometimes.”

Bennett has been the best we’ve seen him when he’s had a clear role, consistent ice time, and decent line-mates. If he knows what he’s supposed to do, what success looks like, and given a chance to do it, he’s great. Playoff time is prime time for him because he crashes around the corners, uses his speed, and is able to use his line-mates well.

Where he can get into trouble is when his role is more muddy and he tries to do too much. Ever wonder why most Bennett penalties are offensive zone penalties? He gets too jazzed up and rambunctious trying to make something happen during his shifts when he doesn’t have a clear role, and that makes him much less effective. He’s a good forechecker and a talented offensive player when he’s engaged, but he just needs some consistency and smart line-mates – it’s no small wonder that he’s been at his best alongside guys like Backlund and Frolik and more recently Dillon Dube and Milan Lucic.

If Bennett can carve out a niche and have a consistent role, there’s no reason he can’t return to the glory of his rookie year – his 18 goals and 36 points would project out to about 13 goals and 26 points over a 56 game campaign. (And for the club’s long-term progression, using Bennett as a centre is probably in everyone’s best interests.) Otherwise, he might remain a complimentary player plagued by consistency challenges.

This is going to be a really important year for Bennett. He’s a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights. And given his youth and promise, he may be the most tantalizing player made available to the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft – that is, unless he plays well enough that the Flames opt to protect him.

What is Bennett at the NHL level? We may finally get the long-awaited answer to that question when the puck drops for the 2020-21 season.