Instant Analysis: Sam Bennett signs eight year, $64 million extension

One down, two to go?

Sam Bennett wanted to tell anyone who would listen that he wasn’t leaving the Panthers in every one of his post Cup celebrations:

On Friday, all of that talk turned to action when he signed his long awaited eight year, $64 million extension, carrying an $8 million AAV per season. Of the three pending unrestricted free agents, Bennett always felt like the most likely to stay put, and the most likely to take a more significant form of a hometown discount, which is exactly what he did. His cap hit slides neatly between Sam Reinhart at $8.625M on the high end and Carter Verhaeghe’s $7 million on the lower end.

Bennett certainly could have commanded far more money on the open market and certainly would have received it from someone, but he certainly valued the stability and certainty that staying in Florida provides, while also receiving a handsome raise on his $4.425M AAV from the last four years.

Sam Bennett is not getting $64 million for his regular season performance, which have maxed out at 28 goals and 51 points. Those numbers and his underlying numbers are pretty good, but not great, certainly not at the level of what an $8 million AAV player is perceived to be. Of course, he’s getting that money for his playoff performances. Even if his 15 goal Conn Smythe run from last postseason might not be repeated again, he scored 15 and 14 points in 2023 and 24 respectively and his goal total has increased from five to seven and now 15.

He’s born to play at his best in this system in the playoffs, and there is no price too expensive to pay with how good he’s been in these last three Cup runs. With the Panthers getting discounts on many other key contracts for their core players, there’s room to pay Bennett a little more than he might be worth for all of those intangibles and more. With the cap ending up at over $113 million by 2027-28, that $8 million hit will be less and less impactful overall, even as Bennett’s performance potentially begins to decline.

Should the Panthers be concerned about whether Bennett’s contract will age gracefully, even in an expanding cap world? Probably not, considering they are trying to win as many Cups as possible while this group is in their prime, and who knows what the NHL world will look like in years 6-8 of this deal. In the short term, Sam Bennett is still a Panther, he’s getting less than he would have on the open market and the Panthers can keep an extremely successful core together as they begin the journey for a three-peat.

In that respect, everyone wins.