The Calgary Flames and Sam Bennett were scheduled for an arbitration hearing on Saturday.
That will no longer be necessary as, Wednesday afternoon, the team announced they've agreed to terms with Bennett on a two-year contract extension worth $2.55 million per.
The money is a little less than I expected, and was projected (although over a three-year term), but perhaps recent extensions to players like Colton Sissons ($2.857M) and Oscar Sundqvist ($2.75M) knocked the price down a bit. Both played similar roles but posted a) better raw totals; b) did so on better teams and; c) saw some UFA years bought up on their deals.
Whatever the case, I think $2.55M more accurately represents what Bennett brings to the table than something closer to the ~$3M range.
Bennett is physical, versatile, and he generates a lot of chances around the net. Unfortunately, converting that into production is a problem and has been since his 19-year-old season.
Now, 312 games and 531 shots into his career, it's fair to wonder if that will ever change.
A two-year deal to take Bennett to 25, when he should be in his prime, gives the Flames a little more time to erase any doubt about what Bennett is and could be before giving him more term.
With Bennett locked up, the Flames have just $7.432 million in cap space with Matthew Tkachuk, David Rittich and Andrew Mangiapane in need of new contracts.
Even conservative estimates probably have that coming in ~$4.5M short of what's necessary so, clearly, GM Brad Treliving still has to make a move or two.
If not anything else, that should make late July and August a little more interesting.
numbers via naturalstattrick.com and capfriendly.com Recent posts: