The Florida Panthers are roaring up the standings as they’ve won eight of their last 10 games and have collected points in nine of their last 11. This was much needed as their 2025-26 campaign was off to a slow start. As of now, they control the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. In the Atlantic Division, they sit one point behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for third, three points behind the Montreal Canadiens for second, and five points behind the Detroit Red Wings for the top spot. They look to replicate Denis Potvin and the early 1980s New York Islanders and win their third-straight Stanley Cup.
One major factor as to why the Panthers have been clawing their way up the standings has been due to their Conn Smythe-winning center in Sam Bennett, who’s been piling up points over the past month. This past offseason, he was inked to an eight-year deal worth $64 million with an annual average of $8 million per season. The contract is finally starting to pay its dividends.
Bennet’s Been Making it Happen
Bennett has found multiple ways to get on the scoresheet. Since Nov. 17, he’s found the back of the net 10 times and was credited with 11 assists. He is currently on a four-game point streak with five points (three goals, two assists) in that span.
This comes after a very slow start to his season, with only a goal and an assist with a minus-9 rating through all of October. On the season, he has 26 points (13 goals, 13 assists) with a plus-4 rating. This is an excellent bounce back for last year’s playoff MVP.
Benny’s Buddies are Happy to See the Success.
Last season, Bennett joined the Humane Society of Broward and started a new campaign called Benny’s Buddies. For every goal he scores, it waives the adoption fee of a pet looking for a new forever home.
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Since starting the program, he’s scored 111 goals in the regular season and 42 goals in the postseason. That’s 152 adoption fees waived thanks to the talents of Bennett over the course of a season and a half. He hopes that it creates more forever homes for pets in need.
The Team is Feeling the Heat from His Success
Over the last few weeks, the team has been looking like themselves from the production of Bennett, and they have nothing but praise for the center.
“Sam Bennett is as good a player as there is in the league right now,”
Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice on Sam Bennett.
If he continues this trend, it will push the team toward another playoff spot. This was badly needed for the locker room, considering their early injury woes and their rough start to the season.
Can Bennett Keep it Going?
With everything at stake before the end of the first half of the season, Bennett needs to find a way to keep his hot streak going. As most fans have seen over his time in Florida, he has a strong presence in the regular season, but he’s also a force when it comes to playoff hockey, with 29 playoff goals and 28 playoff assists in his time with the Panthers.
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If fans want to see that form of Bennett again, he needs to continue his postseason-type play deeper into the season.
