Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
29 Year Old Stanley Cup Champion Sam Bennett > 32 Year Old Stanley Cup Champion Nazem Kadri
I'm not saying that with any shade whatsoever on Kadri. You also have to remember Kadri had himself a crazy contract season in that final year while he won the Stanley Cup.
Sam Bennett is now in that contract year, is 3 years younger than Kadri was at the time, and hey...has 3 points in the first 2 games of the season.
Look out. Sam is going to get paid, and I'd expect it to be in that $8M range (or slightly above), and yes - he is absolutely worth it. Only way it ends up in the 7s is if it's an 8 year deal with Florida. If we're talking a 7 year deal, it'll be above $8M (assuming he has a decent contract year).
Bennett is everything you want in a player, unless you're the worst coached team in the league and management trusts their horrendous coaching hires.
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Kadri's a good comparable. They both play a hard nosed, sand paper game with decent skill and some durability issues over their careers. Both players are ideal high end second line centres who can be first line centres on weaker teams.
Bennett's younger, and although Kadri's arguably a little more skilled, with cap inflation and a few more years of peak performance on his next contract, he'll gets more money, unless he takes a big discount to stay in Florida (with the tax benefits) like Verhaeghe and Reinhardt.
He's not coming back to Calgary, but it'll be interesting how this plays out (especially with Ekblad due up as well). Zito seems good at being able to keep the band together, but Bennett has already given Florida a discount on his current deal, so maybe he doesn't want to do it again especially if he has a career year.