Sam Bennett helped lead the Cats to back-to-back Stanley Cups and earned the 2025 Conn Smythe Trophy, but it wasn’t enough to keep him off The Athletic’s NHL’s 10 worst contracts, 2025 edition. ($) Here’s what Dom Luszcyzszyn had to say about Bennett’s recently signed eight-year deal.
8. Sam Bennett
Contract: $8.0M x eight years
Surplus Value: -$20M
Positive Value Probability: 20 percent
No one who knows puck cares that Sam Bennett is on this list. His presence here is merely a formality, one based entirely on his modest regular-season stats. Big whoop — that’s not what he’s paid for.
No one cares after Bennett won back-to-back Stanley Cup titles with Florida. No one cares after Bennett won the Conn Smythe. When it matters most, Bennett is a winner, a big-game player who elevates better than almost anyone else. He may be a $5.5 million regular-season player (a figure based almost entirely on his age), but in the playoffs, he becomes something else and is a lot closer to a $10.5 million player. Consider $8 million splitting the difference.
Most importantly, though, no one cares that Bennett is here within the context of the Florida Panthers. The team is already saving more than enough on Sam Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Anton Lundell, Gustav Forsling and Aaron Ekblad that they can easily afford a luxury contract such as Bennett’s.
In a vacuum, $8 million for Bennett is too much and so too is an eight-year term that will take up most of his 30s. In a vacuum, this deal may not age very well and it’s on this list for that reason (the first 3-4 years are fine).
But we don’t live in a vacuum. We live in a world where Bennett is a key championship piece for a franchise with dynastic hopes. That’s all that matters. Signed by another team, Bennett’s new deal would’ve been incredibly risky. For the Panthers, and the Panthers only, it’s a risk they can easily afford.
The rest of the list was as follows:
- Jonathan Huberdeau (Calgary Flames)
- Ivan Provorov (Columbus Blue Jackets)
- Chandler Stephenson (Seattle Kraken)
- Brady Skjei (Nashville Predators)
- Nicolas Hague (Nashville Predators)
- Sean Couturier (Philadelphia Flyers)
- Ryan Pulock (New York Islanders)
- Sam Bennett (Florida Panthers)
- Cody Ceci (Los Angeles Kings)
- Tanner Jeannot (Boston Bruins)
Florida Panthers prospect Linus Eriksson did not take part in Sweden’s 8-4 thrashing of Canada at the World Junior Summer Showcase on Friday. Eriksson played in the first three games of the showcase and has one goal and one assist. Sweden will take on Finland today at 2 p.m. Hopefully, Eriksson will get to play in the finale.
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