Two and a half years ago, Beau Bennett would be getting ready for a game at the South Okanagan Events Centre on a Friday night. This past Friday, Bennett was in Winnipeg, in the Pittsburgh Penguins dressing room getting ready for his NHL debut.
BENNETT TALKS TO PENS TV ABOUT NHL DEBUT
Bennett, 21, played his first two NHL games over the weekend as the Penguins were on a two-game road trip in Winnipeg and Buffalo Sunday. The former Vee was recalled by the Penguins earlier in the week after a trade saw Eric Tangradi get dealt to, of all places, Winnipeg. The move freed up a spot for the Penguins to summon their top prospect from the AHL.
The path that saw the California kid get to the NHL wasn’t without its share of twists and turns. It was just a season ago when Bennett, playing college hockey at Denver, suffered a wrist injury that cut his season short to just 10 games before he went under the knife for season-ending surgery. Having that type of procedure can be a tad unnerving when you’re a player known for your soft touch around the net. The procedure went smoothly and Bennett was on the mend for the rest of the season. He missed 33 games due to the injury and made the tough decision to leave the Pioneers and sign an entry-level contract with the Penguins, the team that drafted him in the first round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.
This past fall, with a clean bill of health, Bennett started his pro career in western Pennsylvania, with the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, the Pittsburgh Penguins AHL Affiliate. Bennett seized the opportunity of being one of the Baby Penguins go-to players, as he picked up six points in his first seven games and took off from there. He was one of the Baby Penguins top scorers and earned an invite to the AHL All-Star Classic in Providence in January. Unfortunately Bennett couldn’t suit up for the Eastern Conference due to a lower-body injury that forced him to miss five games. However, just like before he pressed on and got back into the Baby Penguins line-up and picked up where he left off. At the time of his call-up last week, the kid from Gardena, California had seven goals and 25 points in 35 games, sitting in the top three in team scoring.
Bennett got “the call” Thursday morning that he was going to be up with the big club for their two-game road trip and would likely make his NHL debut in Winnipeg, the city where his grandparents grew up before moving to California to start a family. The Penguins were in need of a winger to player alongside reigning NHL MVP Evgeni Malkin and James Neal but first he would have to prove he could play. The plan was to start Beau out on the third line, get his feet wet for a handful of games and then try him in the top-six. Well, that plan lasted all of 10 minutes into the 1st period in Winnipeg, before the former Vee was skating alongside the two NHL all-stars.
In his first NHL game, wearing number 19 on his back, Bennett had 11:37 off ice-time, one shot, and a hit and finished with an even rating in the Penguins 3-1 win over the Jets. An impressive debut considering he had only played 45 games of hockey in the past season and a half. In his follow up in Buffalo on Sunday afternoon, Bennett again worked his way up the line-up and found himself playing a regular shift. In Sunday’s 3-2 come from behind win over the Sabres, Bennett had 15 shifts, logged 12:29 of ice-time and one shot on goal. No those numbers don’t jump off the stat-sheet to the casual observer, but he showed he could hang with the big boys. By all accounts, the Penguins coaching staff liked what they saw from the young forward and it looks like Bennett has every opportunity to make his call-up a permanent one.
A pretty remarkable rise really, as it was just three seasons ago this lanky kid from California, who looked he should have had a surf board under is arm rather than a hockey stick in his hand, was lighting up the BCHL. Then again, if you were lucky enough to seen him play in person, you weren’t surprised to see him on your TV, on Hockey Night in Canada, playing in Winnipeg.
