Colby Guy
Sam Bennett will skate onto the ice at the Saddledome on Tuesday night for the first time since the Calgary Flames traded him to the Florida Panthers last April.
Bennett spent seven seasons in Calgary after the Flames made him the fourth overall pick of the 2014 NHL Draft.
Although things did not work out the way anyone hoped in Calgary, Bennett has elevated his game in the Sunshine State.
“It’s going to be weird and it’s going to be different for me, but I’m really excited,” Bennett said. “Just to be back in that building, it’s going to be weird playing them for the first time, but it’s a game I’m really excited for.”
After spending his entire career out in western Canada, the five-game road trip to the area, starting with his Calgary homecoming, is a first for him, especially coming from sunny South Florida.
“It’s a bit different going from warm weather to cold weather this time instead of the opposite,” Bennett said. “Definitely have to pack heavy for this road trip, but it’s going to be exciting.
”It’s a fresh, exciting opportunity.”
His arrival in Florida could be described in the same manner.
In 402 games with Calgary, Bennett put up 67 goals and 140 points.
He showed a goal-scoring touch in his rookie season, scoring 18 goals in 77 games. But that big-time scoring acumen was not shown again — at least not during the regular season — while with the Flames.
In 30 playoff games with Calgary, Bennett scored 11 goals and totaled 19 points.
That included the Flames’ 2020 run in the bubble where he led the team in both goals (five) and points (eight) in a 10-game run that saw them get ousted by the eventual Western Conference champion Dallas Stars in six.
When Florida needed to bolster their roster for the playoffs last season, general manager Bill Zito obviously saw something in Bennett.
Zito sent a 2022 second-round pick and Emil Heineman (Florida’s second-round selection in 2020) to Calgary in exchange for the 6-1, 195-pound center.
Bennett had asked for a trade looking for a fresh start but when Darryl Sutter took over behind the bench, his game started to pick up.
He told Eric Francis of Sportsnet on Monday that he was surprised when the trade actually came at the deadline.
“When I was playing under Darryl, I loved it,” Bennett said. “I really liked playing for him. He was giving me a lot more opportunity and I was really happy playing under him. I thought things were turning around for me for sure.
“I didn’t think I was going to get traded at the deadline after Darryl came in. I knew there was still a chance, but it seemed like I wasn’t going to.”
The move paid off for both the Panthers and Bennett.
In 39 regular-season games with the Panthers so far, Bennett has 21 goals and 38 points.
That included a run at the beginning of his Florida tenure when he scored 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in his final 10 games of the regular season.
As he did in his time in Calgary, Bennett picked his production up in the playoffs as well.
In five playoff games, Bennett notched five points — including a goal that got the Panthers started in their 5-4 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1.
The Panthers lost the series in six games, with Bennett missing Game 2 of the series after getting suspended for a hit on Tampa’s Blake Coleman.
That penalty, with Florida leading late in the third, may have cost the Panthers at least that game and perhaps more.
Bennett later served the second suspension of his Florida tenure after a Jan. 1 hit to the head on Montreal’s Cedric Pacquette which had him out of the lineup for three games — including Florida’s home game against the Flames earlier this month.
“He’s been awesome,” Anthony Duclair said of Bennett. “Any time he’s in the lineup when he’s not suspended, he’s a threat.”
In 29 games this season, Bennett has 15 goals and 23 points — and the Panthers really had to lean on him at points.
When Sasha Barkov was out of the lineup for 13 games, Bennett served as the team’s No. 1 center for a month and they did not miss a beat.
During that stretch starting when Barkov suffered a lower-body injury on Nov. 16 and ending at the start of the holiday break, the Panthers went 8-5-1.
“He is such an important part of our team,” Brunette said. “He was our top center for a while, filled that role. It’s fun to see him there and continue with his line.”