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“The Maple Leafs would have given more than $10.9M per year to Sam Bennett”
Félix Forget
“The Maple Leafs would have given more than $10.9M per year to Sam Bennett”
Credit: Getty Images
Last night, Sam Bennett was the talk of Florida. The forward, who was at a festival party yesterday, took to the microphone… and publicly announced that he wasn’t going anywhere.

It’s not completely settled yet, but clearly, the player wants nothing to do with leaving.

So we have to assume, until proven otherwise, that he won’t be leaving the Panthers. This means that the teams who coveted him for July 1 must now look elsewhere… and the Maple Leafs have to be considered.

We know that the Leafs, who will have money to spend with Mitch Marner on his way out, would have liked to repatriate Bennett, who is a little guy from Ontario. And according to Renaud Lavoie, the Leafs were even prepared to offer Bennett a monstrous contract: on BPM Sports this morning, he noted that Toronto would have offered Bennett “more than $10.9 million a year”.

10.9 M per year is the annual salary Mitch Marner received on his contract, which expires in ten days or so.

We know the Leafs have been looking for ways to break out of their playoff slump for years, and in Bennett, who just won the Conn Smythe Trophy after a very big playoff run, he would have added a player with a ton of dog, something the club has lacked in recent years.

That said, the club has been opting for the Core Four recipe for the past few years… and such a pact to Bennett would only recreate that same recipe by changing just one name. Or two, if John Tavares leaves, but you get the point.

It’s also worth remembering that Bennett, despite his 15 goals and 22 points in 23 playoff games, has never collected more than 51 points in a season. He’s celebrating his 29th birthday today, so he’s approaching 30… and the age when players generally start to regress.

And that’s even truer for a player as physical as Bennett.

Giving Bennett more money than Marner, who just doubled the Panthers forward’s points this season, makes it pretty clear that the Leafs would do anything to try and beat their spring demons.

And right now, there are people in Toronto who must really be hoping that negotiations between Bennett and the Panthers turn sour.


Overtime

– Of note.

– Contract buyouts: names to watch.

– Dante Fabbro is not close to a deal with the Blue Jackets. The Habs need to keep a close eye on this.

– Interesting.

– It says a lot about the relationship between the player and the team.

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