The Panthers Will Be Without Centre Sam Bennett Because of Upper-Body Injury

Sam Bennett has been one of the Panthers most consistent players since his acquisition from the Calgary Flames back in 2021. He has hit the 40 point mark in each of his three full seasons in South Florida. Moreover, Bennett was off to a great start to the game, as he had already collected a goal and an assist. He has again, consistently being a reliable figure in the Panthers lineup when springtime hockey rolls around. Even back to his Calgary days. In eight playoff appearances, through 67 career games, he has 44 points. Perhaps impressively is his hit total, and he has recorded 255 in those games. This will be an all-round difficult set of skates for the club to fill.

Who Can Step Up?

One point that the Panthers are lucky following the injury to Sam Bennett is their depth at the centre-ice position. They have lots of other players that can jump in and play the centre position. Guys that can be depth centres include Anton Lundell, Kevin Stenlund, or even Sam Reinhart on occasion. In last night’s game, it was Lundell that was bumped up to play with Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk. Not a couple of bad wingers to find yourself playing, and not hard to see why Florida is expected to contend for the Cup.