[Signing] Panthers re-sign Bennett (4yrs, $4.425mil AAV)

[_Q_]

Is this really a good deal for Florida? I'm not convinced that Sam will live up to that AAV for the entirety of the contract.

Time will tell I guess.

[DropIt]

Don't think this will age well. Hoping it will though.

[FlamesAddiction]

Hard to say how this will go for Florida. He really excelled in the short time he was there. Not just production, but he played like he gave a ####, something he rarely did in Calgary.

If they can keep him happy, it will probably work out. If they can't, I wouldn't be surprised to see him back in sulk country again before that contract is up.

Still at least should have kept him for expansion fodder as bait to protect Giordano, but oh wells.

[ben voyonsdonc]

His end of the season performance definitely put the Panthers in a tough spot. He played like a player worth that contract but I'm absolutely unconvinced that he will be able to sustain that over the long haul.

Good for him though.

[alan21]

Way to go Benny! I think it's going to be great value without an organization smothering him at every turn.

[flamesgod]

Originally Posted by neo45

Happy for Sam but think Panthers will regret it at some point over 4 years

The player is super volatile and seems to be unable to avoid taking costly penalties


Happy to see him get paid though

No, they won’t regret it at all. It’ll be viewed as a steal.

[Icon]

Way to go Sam.

Now outplay Barkov so they foolishly trade him to us... I can dream right?

[Geeoff]

This is gonna be a bad deal if Bennett plays like he did in Calgary

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by DropIt

Don't think this will age well. Hoping it will though.

Bennett won't even be 30 at the expiry of the deal. Seems a lot less risky than paying a 30 year old player like Blake Coleman to a 4+ year deal or 29 year old Hyman to a 7 year deal.

[Winsor_Pilates]

He will likely end up somewhere in the middle of the player he was for 20 games in Florida and the player he was in Calgary.
If that's the case, will likely be a bit of overpayment, but not crazy.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Bennett won't even be 30 at the expiry of the deal. Seems a lot less risky than paying a 30 year old player like Blake Coleman to a 4+ year deal or 29 year old Hyman to a 7 year deal.

Both UFAs for one

Seems like a lot for 10 good games on a new team

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Hard to say how this will go for Florida. He really excelled in the short time he was there. Not just production, but he played like he gave a ####, something he rarely did in Calgary.

If they can keep him happy, it will probably work out. If they can't, I wouldn't be surprised to see him back in sulk country again before that contract is up.

Still will we at least kept him for expansion fodder as bait to protect Giordano, but oh wells.

He was excelling in Calgary before he was moved, as well. If at some point he was sulking, so be it, everyone but Ward saw what he could do and the biggest difference between Bennett under Ward and Bennett under Sutter and Quenneville is that the latter actually gave him a chance to do it.

Any attempt to reframe Bennett as a hard-to-please sulker is ridiculous, given the circumstances.

And if it makes you feel any better, Gio would have been exposed regardless. And if Sam played the way he did in Florida to finish off the season here, he would've been protected anyway.

[CroFlames]

4.4 seems high, but if he's truly transformed with his change of scenery then it is a good deal.

I just get flashbacks of boneheaded play after boneheaded play and the puck being a hot potato on his stick.

I liked the kid, he represented the future. It just wasn't meant to be here. Funny, his best game as an NHLer was against the Panthers.

[Enoch Root]

I think he will be good value for the contract - he has tools, and he has been showing for a while that he has started to put it together

[DeluxeMoustache]

So to the folks who are saying this won’t age well, or are saying he may not live up to the AAV… you do know that 4.4 is not a huge salary and so not really a huge risk for Florida, yes?

Florida is not banking on him sustaining a 1.5 point per game pace, or even expecting 1 point per game, at that dollar figure.

Using the rough guideline of 100K / point, that is what a 45 point guy gets. He obviously didn’t hit 45 points in Calgary with his utilization, but with Florida utilization, he took a significant step up in production

A couple of data points to frame what players approaching point per game, and what 4.4 million gets
- Matthew Tkachuk has not hit a point per game yet and the Flames are committed to qualifying him at 9 million dollars
- Calgary signed Brouwer in 2016 for 4x4.5. That was for a 40ish point guy.

I think Sam is more likely to give good value for the dollar than end up being a regrettable signing for Florida

[CSharp]

In before this becomes another super thread - buyout or traded in 2 years!

[Strange Brew]

Well good for Sam.

The Flames sure could use the player that he was for Florida so I hope whoever we sign to fill that spot costs less. I suppose Pitlcik could be viewed that way, at least compared to what Bennett was in Calgary.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

So to the folks who are saying this won’t age well, or are saying he may not live up to the AAV… you do know that 4.4 is not a huge salary and so not really a huge risk for Florida, yes?

Florida is not banking on him sustaining a 1.5 point per game pace, or even expecting 1 point per game, at that dollar figure.

Using the rough guideline of 100K / point, that is what a 45 point guy gets. He obviously didn’t hit 45 points in Calgary with his utilization, but with Florida utilization, he took a significant step up in production

A couple of data points to frame what players approaching point per game, and what 4.4 million gets
- Matthew Tkachuk has not hit a point per game yet and the Flames are committed to qualifying him at 9 million dollars
- Calgary signed Brouwer in 2016 for 4x4.5. That was for a 40ish point guy.

I think Sam is more likely to give good value for the dollar than end up being a regrettable signing for Florida

In addition to not getting points in Calgary, Bennett could do nothing else right. He was such a popular topic here because almost everyone believed he could do it, he just never did. The Panthers think he'll finally get it, and there are some signs now that show he will.

I submit that he'd never become that player in Calgary, for whatever reason.

Tkachuk does a lot of things well, and even Brouwer brought some leadership and grit.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by Locke

$4.4M?

Who is this guy? What is in the water in Florida?

It's overpayment for sure given how he played here and the small sample size.

But Sam Bennett is one of the good guys in the league that I'll cheer for no matter where he plays. Paid his dues and got a chance to thrive on another team. Now he gets to cash in big time.

Looks like everything he went through (literally) paid off for him.

I'd be a bit worried if that was his contract with the Flames, but alas he's not the team's problem anymore. Good for him. Hope he lives up to it and continues to thrive in FLA.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

It's overpayment for sure given how he played here and the small sample size.

But Sam Bennett is one of the good guys in the league that I'll cheer for no matter where he plays. Paid his dues and got a chance to thrive on another team. Now he gets to cash in big time.

Looks like everything he went through (literally) paid off for him.

I'd be a bit worried if that was his contract with the Flames, but alas he's not the team's problem anymore. Good for him. Hope he lives up to it and continues to thrive in FLA.

They aren't paying him for how he did in Calgary.

They aren't paying him for how well he did in his short time at the end of the season either. If they were he'd be getting quite a bit more.

They're paying him on somewhere in between and hopng/confident that he'll keep it up.