Panthers’ Sam Bennett on Team Canada Olympic snub: ‘Pretty disappointed’

Sam Bennett thought he did enough. He hoped he did enough. But in the end, apparently he didn’t.

Team Canada submitted its 25-man roster for the 2026 Winter Olympics on Wednesday. Bennett was not part of the team. As of now, he will not be representing his country on the biggest stage in February, one year after helping Canada win gold at the 4 Nations Face-Off — the first time NHL players were able to play in a best-on-best international format tournament since the World Cup of Hockey in 2016. NHL players haven’t competed in the Olympics since 2014. The news hit Bennett hard. “Obviously pretty disappointed,” the Florida Panthers’ center said Sunday in his first public comments since the roster reveal.

And understandably so. Bennett has shown the knack for stepping up on the biggest stages. He has been integral in Florida winning the past two Stanley Cups, scoring 22 goals with 36 points the past two postseasons. He is the reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs MVP after logging 15 goals in Florida’s repeat championship bid. He scored Canada’s game-tying goal in the 4 Nations championship game against the United States. And he’s been on a heater as of late as well to get to 31 points (14 goals, 17 assists) on the season while taking on a bigger responsibility for the Panthers with captain Aleksander Barkov and star winger Matthew Tkachuk sidelined all season while recovering from major surgeries. Despite all that, Bennett was on the outside looking in when it came down to making Canada’s roster. And for his part, he is trying to take the high road despite the disappointment. “I wish I could have proven that I could help that team win a gold medal, and obviously I didn’t do enough,” Bennett said. “But I try to look at what I’m grateful for, and that’s that opportunity I had last year [at the 4 Nations Face-Off]. That was probably the proudest moment of my career, getting to put on that jersey. So, yeah, I am going to be forever grateful for that opportunity. And, yeah, now we just focus on this season.”

Is there anything more Bennett could have done? “I’m not sure,” Bennett said. “That choice, it was left up into other people’s hands.” Bennett is one of three players from Canada’s 4 Nations roster that did not make the Olympic roster. Fellow forwards Travis Konecny and Seth Jarvis are the others. Mark Scheifele, who has 48 points in 40 games for the Winnipeg Jets, was also a surprise omission. That said, Bennett might still have a chance to make it to the Olympics, but it would have to come as an injury replacement for someone already on the roster. Every Olympic team has a group of players on standby who could get a call in the event of injuries. Who exactly is on that list for Team Canada, how many players are on that list and the exact pecking order is publicly unclear. “It’s not one player out, one player in,” Team Canada general manager Doug Armstrong said after the roster was announced. “What we’re going to do is say: ‘If this style of player gets hurt, we’ll have a list of players to look at it. If this style of player, gets hurt, we’ll have a list of players to look at.’ That list, it’s long but not too long because there’s different style of players that we want.” Two of Bennett’s Panthers teammates, meanwhile, will be representing Canada at the Olympics. Sam Reinhart, who has been one of the NHL’s top scorers over the past five years, was one of the first six players named to the team in June. Veteran forward Brad Marchand, who is tied for eighth in the NHL with 23 goals this season, was named to the team on Wednesday.

Reinhart and Panthers coach Paul Maurice were asked Thursday about Bennett’s snub. Their response? “There’s not much you can say about it,” Reinhart said. “He’s put so much into it. You could sit here and say so many guys have earned their way onto the team. But at the end of the day, it’s out of our control. All I can say is we’ve played with him for years and he’s a guy you’d want to go to war with any day of the week.” Added Maurice: “I was really proud of him when he got named [to the 4 Nations team] last year, but it also meant somebody (else) didn’t, a good player didn’t, so I want to be respectful of that. So I’ll just critique Sam. He’s got two Stanley Cups. He was part of the 4 Nations. He won the Conn Smythe, and in my opinion, in the last 27 games [Bennett] is playing the best hockey of his career.”

And then Bennett added another assist on a power-play goal one game later in Florida’s Winter Classic game against the Rangers. And then Bennett opened scoring on Sunday in Florida’s eventual 2-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche by forcing a turnover in Colorado’s zone, driving to the net and forcing the puck past goaltender Scott Wedgewood in the first period. That has given Bennett points in nine consecutive games, a new career-high. After struggling to score to start the season, putting up two points (one goal, one assist) in 11 games, Bennett has 29 points (13 goals, 16 assists) in his past 30 games. “I feel pretty good about my game,” Bennett said. But in the end, it wasn’t enough to get a call from Team Canada. “Obviously I didn’t do enough,” Bennett said, “so I can really only look at myself.”