John Shannon believes Panthers internally worried about Sam Bennett joining Maple Leafs

With each passing day bringing an increasing feeling that Mitch Marner will not be with the Toronto Maple Leafs next season, there’s a natural curiosity about what the team will do to fill the void of his impending free agency.

Aside from Marner and John Tavares, the best skater set to hit the market this summer is Florida Panthers centre Sam Bennett. Earlier this week, NHL insider John Shannon said he believes Bennett’s free agency comes down to just two teams. During an appearance on Leafs Morning Take with Nick Alberga and David Pagnotta on Thursday, Shannon doubled down.

“If Sam Bennett is going to play hockey next season, it is only in two places,” Shannon said to Alberga. “It is either going to be returning to the Florida Panthers, where obviously he has been very successful, or he’s coming home. That’s it.”

If Marner walks on July 1st, it may just open up the space to bring in another homegrown talent in Bennett, who was born just outside Toronto, playing his youth hockey with the York-Simcoe Express and the Toronto Marlboros.

As a team looking to get more physical and build a playoff-winning mentality, Bennett might be just the player Toronto needs, and Shannon added even more fuel to the free agency fire on the show Thursday.

“There are people even within the Panthers organization that are concerned that Sam might have already made his mind up that something might happen with the Maple Leafs, and they’re hoping that they can still convince him to play in Sunrise,” Shannon said.

While this is all still rumoured, it’s a new development to this very intriguing story. Bennett has slowly built himself as enemy #1 in Toronto, with a history of dirty shots against the Leafs, especially in the playoffs. But no doubt, if he made his way north of the border and brought his talents to this Toronto squad, that bad blood would quickly dissipate, especially with the prospect of not having to face him in the postseason once again.

Of course, there are still barriers to consider. As one of the top free agents on the market this summer, Bennett is sure to demand a big figure from whatever teams are interested, and it’s hard to imagine he’s interested in a hometown discount if he were to play alongside some of league’s highest paid players in Toronto. Marner’s exit would free up extra cap space, but it becomes a question of how willing the Leafs are to throw all that at one player. At the same time, could a big swing be just what the team needs right now, chasing their first Stanley Cup Final is over half a century?

So as Marner’s exit from Toronto begins to feel increasingly inevitable, keep an eye on Bennett as a strong contender to be part of Toronto’s revamped core, as they lookup to shakeup the team DNA heading into next season.