Florida Panthers and Montreal Canadiens

Florida Panthers and Sam Bennett Working on an Extension

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, during the second Intermission on Saturday Headlines, stated the Florida Panthers and Sam Bennett have begun negotiations on a new contract extension. Nothing is close, but there is a deal to be made.

NHLRumors.com Transcriptions

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Ron MacLean: “Welcome Back Saturday night, the second intermission, of course, headlines with Elliotte Friedman and Elliotte will start in Sunrise, Florida.”

Elliotte Friedman: “Yes, we will, Ron; you’ll remember going back to their banner-raising season opener, the Florida Panthers, in addition to celebrating the Stanley Cup, that night, signed a critical piece of their team, Carter Verhaeghe to an eight-year extension.

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Well, in the aftermath of that, they have begun negotiations with another very important piece of their roster, Sam Bennett. Now there’s nothing to report at this point in time in terms of being close to a deal or anything like that, but this is one a lot of teams in the league will be looking at.

It’s very hard to find good centers, and Bennett is a good center, a big piece of that team, according to several people I’ve spoken to, there is, appears to be the ability to make a deal here, but nothing is done until it’s done, and we’ll see where it goes from here. But lots of teams watching to see if Bennett hits the open market Ron.”

Montreal Canadiens to Visit Prospect Ivan Demidov

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, during the second Intermission on Saturday’s Headlines, stated that Montreal Canadiens GM Kent Hughes is playing to visit and watch fifth overall pick Ivan Demidov as there is concern over his playing time.

NHLRumors.com Transcriptions

Ron MacLean: “As they are with Shesterkin in New York, I thought you and Kyle were great when he said, Panarin is doing them a favor by being the top player, but not tonight. Kelly will have more on that. All right, couple of updates. Valerie Nichuskin, but first, Montreal Canadiens. What are they up to?”

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Elliotte Friedman: “The Montreal Canadiens fans have been pretty disappointed this year with the playing time of their fifth overall draft pick, Ivan Demidov, over in Russia. Now, the moment the Canadiens drafted him, they made plans that at some point in time they would eventually go in the season to watch him, visit him, check and see how he’s doing, and they are scheduling that trip now. It’s going to take some time.

It’s going to take place sometime over the next few weeks to months, but they are going to go over to see him play and perform and practice and get a firsthand look at how it is. It was something they always planned to do when the Canadiens will probably be happy to hear, their fans will be happy to hear that the Canadiens and their GM Kent Hughes are going to go over and see him firsthand.”