Third Report This Week Links Maple Leafs to Physical Atlantic Division Forward
Photo credit: Jason Mowry - USA Today Sports
Jeff Marek believes that the Toronto Maple Leafs will be at the top of the list of teams who will push very hard to acquire gritty forward on July 1st.
One specific pending unrestricted free agent that is going to draw a lot of interest league-wide is Florida Panthers forward Sam Bennett, and rightfully so.
The former 4th overall pick from the 2014 NHL Entry Draft found it tough to traverse the NHL landscape with the Calgary Flames, struggling to the tune of just 67 goals and 140 points in 402 games spanned across 7 years.
Things changed on a dime for Bennett when he was traded to Florida as he has collected 90 goals and 187 points in 276 games over the past 4+ seasons. Not to mention his post-season runs over the last two years that netted 29 points in 39 games and a Stanley Cup ring.
His game has completely revolutionized in Florida and he's becoming a free agent at the right time considering the spikes we are about to see with the league's salary cap.
Florida will try to find a way to keep him, but they are expected to have around $19 million in cap space this summer with Bennett, Brad Marchand, and Aaron Ekblad among those hitting unrestricted free agency.
It's not out of the realm of possibility that Bennett reaches over $8 million AAV on his next deal and if it's not with the Panthers, you can assure yourselves that the Toronto Maple Leafs will be involved as reported by Jeff Marek.
"I think it will be a cattle auction and I think that the Toronto Maple Leafs will be one those teams that will be right in there but much like Mitch Marner, he is represented by Darren Ferris and Darren Ferris likes to, and has made no bones about it, 'I believe in taking our guys to market, I believe in getting them to July 1st'... but they've earned that right and Darren Ferris has always been one of those agents that has maintained it's the right thing to do unless a GM comes in and offers something ridiculous."
The Maple Leafs will be dealing with agent Darren Ferris if Bennett becomes available and they're very accustomed to his stylings based on his representation of Mitch Marner.
Ferris is a very hard agent to deal with because as Marek mentions, he believes in not only getting top dollar but going to market to see what else is out there.
Bennett is everything the Maple Leafs have been looking for and then some but hard decisions will need to be made about their other pending free agents outside of Marner like UFA-to-be John Tavares and RFA Matthew Knies.
They are set to have around $27.5 million to work with so it will be interesting to see how they divvy that up between their pending free agents and the possibility of bringing Bennett into the fold. However, he first has to hit unrestricted free agency on July 1st for that to even be a possibility.
| POLL | ||
MARS 13 | 2375 ANSWERS Third Report This Week Links Maple Leafs to Physical Atlantic Division Forward Would you like to see Sam Bennett in a Maple Leafs jersey? | ||
| Yes | 1778 | 74.9 % |
| No | 280 | 11.8 % |
| Only at the right price | 317 | 13.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
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