How Much Will The Florida Panthers Will Pay Sam Bennett To Keep Him
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period was on TSN Radio in Montreal and was asked about Sam Bennett and how negotiations are progressing with the Florida Panthers. Pagnotta states the Panthers want to keep him, but things might not get done until after the season is over.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
NHL Rumors: Will The Florida Panthers Extend Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad?
Host: “Dave, we saw Florida on Saturday night at the Bell Centre, and Sam Bennett is a pending unrestricted free agent. How do you think that all plays out? It’s a very interesting case where you have a player who, in the regular season, doesn’t produce a ton. He might get some career highs this year, but he’s a 50-point player. He’s just dynamite in the playoffs, which is, which is valuable, but you know, the 82 games that you pay him for may be less. So, like, how do you think it all goes in the summer for Bennett?”
Dave Pagnotta: “Yeah, I mean, this kind of guy is, you mentioned the intangibles that Brady Tkachuk brings. Sam Bennett brings a significant amount of that as well. And yes, he doesn’t produce at the same point level, but with the group that they have in Florida and the way that he’s deployed, he doesn’t need to be.
They’ve got other weapons on that squad that can focus more on the offensive side of things, compared to when you need the gritty, muck type of play that Sam Bennet brings, even in the regular season. The game that they played here in Toronto earlier in the week, on Thursday last week, excuse me, like that had a playoff vibe to it, and wasn’t just Bennett. There were a few others, but Bennett specifically was playing at that kind of pace, it’s almost a bit of message sending as well to a divisional rival that is chasing you for top seed in the division.
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Those negotiations were ongoing around the time that Carter, at the start of the season when Carter Verhaeghe signed his deal, and they tried to keep that going. It died off a little bit. They’ve resumed discussions. And they’ll carry it out. I think they understand, especially with the group that they’ve got there, led by a management group, excuse me, led by Bill Zito try to if they can’t figure this out now, all right, just let’s pause and get back to it for them, they hope for the end of June.
Similar to how they handled Sam Reinhart last season. I don’t know the specific dollars that Bennett is looking for, but I think it will be similar to what Verhaeghe ended up getting. Now Verhaeghe signed for seven per. I think Bennet will be above that. We’ll see exactly where that gets to. Can he get to the eight mark? I think in the summer, if he hits open market, he can probably be in and around that.
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Florida, again, has the benefit, like few teams, of no state tax, so that will factor into the final number if he does stay, as it did with Verhaeghe as it has with a lot of their other guys, but I think Florida will do everything that he can to try to make it happen and to keep him.
But Zito is a shrewd negotiator, so and he understands both, being a former player agent as well. So we’ll see kind of how this evolves. But he’s, almost an invaluable piece to a cup-contending roster. And if Florida wants to keep things going, I think they recognize the importance of keeping them along.”
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