{"id":470763,"date":"2025-06-22T12:49:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T16:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=470763"},"modified":"2025-06-22T12:49:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T16:49:18","slug":"nhl-rumours-coveted-florida-panthers-free-agent-announces-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/06\/22\/nhl-rumours-coveted-florida-panthers-free-agent-announces-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumours: Coveted Florida Panthers Free Agent Announces Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time for another round of NHL rumours. The Stanley Cup Final has been decided and the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/06\/17\/stanley-cup-final-edmonton-oilers-goaltending-woes-reappeared-panthers\/\" target=\"_self\">Florida Panthers<\/a> have <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/06\/17\/florida-panthers-have-defeated-edmonton-oilers-win-2025-nhl-stanley-cup-champions\/\" target=\"_self\">gone back-to-back<\/a>. However, the news surrounding the two-time champions doesn&#8217;t stop. The Panthers are celebrating their historic victory, but now the attention turns to keeping the band together. Big-money offers will be coming and players will have to decide what comes next.<\/p>\n<p>This edition of NHL rumours deals with a key component of the Cup winners and what he wants to do next.<\/p>\n<p>All NHL rumours come from the original source and are subject to change.<\/p>\n<h2>NHL Rumours<\/h2>\n<h3>Conn Smythe Winner Expresses Desire to Stay Put<\/h3>\n<p><em>Rumour: In a post-Cup winning appearance, Conn Smythe winner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/bennesa01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-22_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sam Bennett<\/a> announced <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/nhl\/article\/sam-bennett-hints-at-contract-extension-with-panthers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">his hopes to stay put<\/a> with the Panthers.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Incredible night for the Panthers. Just like last year, the celebrations are amazing to see. (No Atlantic Ocean \u2014 yet.)<\/p>\n<p>As of this morning, no extension with Sam Bennett is complete \u2014 although, obviously, conversations continue. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fQ3r5osmPK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/fQ3r5osmPK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FriedgeHNIC\/status\/1936037370610303429?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 20, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Analysis:<\/em> Bennett played a massive hand in Florida going to back-to-back as Stanley Cup champions. The 29-year-old did his best of Wolf of Wall Street impersonation and said that he wasn&#8217;t leaving and was planning to sign an eight-year deal.<\/p>\n<p>Bennett recorded a career-high 51 points with 25 goals and 26 assists in 71 games this season. However, he really turned it up in the post-season with 15 goals and 22 points in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Those 15 goals were the best for the entire post-season.<\/p>\n<p>The Holland Landing, Ontario native was also part of the tournament-winning Team Canada squad that won the Four Nations Face-Off. Bennett registered a goal in three games played for his native country.<\/p>\n<p>Sportsnet&#8217;s Elliotte Friedman said that no contract has been signed. However, talks seem to be ongoing between Bennett and the Panthers.<\/p>\n<h4>What It Means<\/h4>\n<p>It&#8217;s going to be hard to keep the core of the Panthers together. There have already been some extensions to players like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/v\/verhaca01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-22_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carter Verhaeghe<\/a>. However, players like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/e\/ekblaaa01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-22_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Ekblad<\/a>, Bennett and others <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/06\/13\/nhl-rumours-latest-florida-panthers-roster-chatter\/\" target=\"_self\">need new deals.<\/a> It&#8217;s going to be hard for Panthers General Manager Bill Zito to keep this group together.<\/p>\n<p>However, Zito has done a fairly good job keeping a number of players in South Florida. There have been losses like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/montobr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-22_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brandon Montour<\/a> to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/06\/21\/seattle-kraken-and-chicago-blackhawks-exchange-forwards\/\" target=\"_self\">Seattle Kraken<\/a>, but this group has stayed mostly intact.<\/p>\n<p>This off-season may prove difficult, but Zito is well-equipped to keep most of this group together. It does help that Florida has no state tax, but that&#8217;s not the only reason players want to stay there. Zito may be able to make whatever contract go a bit further than if Bennett where playing elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>Playing for a winning team is a great draw and having warm weather doesn&#8217;t hurt. Players want to be with a winner and the Panthers have proven to be one of those. Florida is just a few seasons away from being an also ran, so the tax thing isn&#8217;t a be-all and end-all. Teams like the Nashville Predators struggled this season. This is despite the state of Tennessee not having state tax just like Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Bennett came over the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/06\/21\/nhl-rumours-involving-a-top-end-calgary-flame-splayer\/\" target=\"_self\">Calgary Flames<\/a> and has been a huge force for Florida. His game is very physical, but he&#8217;s a strong contributor on both ends of the ice.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo by: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time for another round of NHL rumours. The Stanley Cup Final has been decided and the Florida Panthers have gone back-to-back. However, the news surrounding the two-time champions doesn&#8217;t stop. The Panthers are celebrating their historic victory, but now the attention turns to keeping the band together. Big-money offers will be coming and players [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":470764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4547,34,4548,4321],"tags":[346,288,2425,1812,7776,1727],"class_list":["post-470763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-panthers","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","category-rumours","tag-aaron-ekblad","tag-bill-zito","tag-brandon-montour","tag-conn-smythe","tag-florida-panthers-rumours","tag-sam-bennett"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470767,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470763\/revisions\/470767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}