{"id":147034,"date":"2025-08-03T11:14:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T11:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/147034\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T11:14:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T11:14:43","slug":"panthers-sam-bennett-included-in-list-of-nhls-worst-contracts-but-theres-a-catch-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/147034\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers’ Sam Bennett Included in List of ‘NHL\u2019s Worst Contracts,’ But There’s a Catch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Panthers’ Sam Bennett Included in List of ‘NHL\u2019s Worst Contracts,’ But There’s a Catch<\/a> originally appeared on Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sam Bennett helped lead the Florida Panthers<\/a> to back-to-back Stanley Cup wins, earning the 2025 Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs after putting together a dominant postseason.<\/p>\n

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Despite the accolades, NHL analyst Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic<\/a> included Bennett\u2019s new contract among what he considers the 10 worst deals entering the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

The Panthers and Bennett reached an agreement on an eight-year, $64 million contract<\/a> extension on June 27. The contract includes a no-move clause through the 2030 season and a modified no-trade clause after that.<\/p>\n

According to Luszczyszyn’s model, Bennett’s deal carries a negative projected value of $20 million and just a 20% chance of becoming a net positive asset, ranking as the eighth-worst leaguewide.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn 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,\u201d Luszczyszyn wrote.<\/p>\n

While many expected Bennett to seek a more lucrative deal in free agency, the Panthers forward instead re-signed with Florida at a lower annual value.<\/p>\n

Bennett’s Performance vs. Price Tag<\/p>\n

At 29, Bennett remains a productive top-six center. He posted 25 goals and 26 assists for 51 points in 76 regular-season games last season. In the playoffs, however, Bennett elevated his game with 15 goals and eight assists in 21 appearances, leading the league in goals.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBeing in South Florida has just completely changed my life,\u201d Bennett said<\/a> after signing his extension. \u201cI love playing hockey here, I love living here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Florida<\/p>\n

Florida Panthers forward Sam BennettJames Guillory-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Despite Luszczyszyn\u2019s skepticism over the contract length and cap hit, he acknowledged that context matters.<\/p>\n

“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,” Luszczyszyn wrote. “Consider $8 million splitting the difference.”<\/p>\n

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Why the Panthers Can Live With It<\/p>\n

While most franchises would struggle to justify an eight-year deal at that number, Luszczyszyn argued the Panthers are uniquely positioned to absorb it.<\/p>\n

“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,” Luszczyszyn wrote. “Big whoop \u2014 that\u2019s not what he\u2019s paid for.”<\/p>\n

The Panthers already benefit from below-market deals for other stars like Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov, giving them the flexibility to retain core players even at a premium price as they keep their championship window open.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe don\u2019t live in a vacuum,\u201d Luszczyszyn wrote. \u201cWe live in a world where Bennett is a key championship piece for a franchise with dynastic hopes. That\u2019s all that matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cSigned by another team, Bennett\u2019s new deal would\u2019ve been incredibly risky. For the Panthers, and the Panthers only, it\u2019s a risk they can easily afford.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: NHL Insider Links Maple Leafs to Panthers’ Two-Time Stanley Cup Winner<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: NJ Devils Forward Tops List of ‘NHL\u2019s Best Contracts’ for 2025-26 Season<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Aug 1, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Panthers’ Sam Bennett Included in List of ‘NHL\u2019s Worst Contracts,’ But There’s a Catch originally appeared on Athlon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[91,20844,62,57,5141,5,6818,7621,94,4,63,83,244],"class_list":{"0":"post-147034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida-panthers","8":"tag-aleksander-barkov","9":"tag-dom-luszczyszyn","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-panthers","12":"tag-floridapanthers","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-ivan-provorov","15":"tag-jonathan-huberdeau","16":"tag-matthew-tkachuk","17":"tag-nhl","18":"tag-panthers","19":"tag-sam-bennett","20":"tag-the-panthers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114964546674073913","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}