No need to stress Sam Bennett’s lack of contract

The Flames participated in the NHL draft. They traded for a top four defenceman. They traded for a new goaltending tandem. Every big item from their offseason to-do list has been checked.

Well, except for one.

It feels like deja vu, except it’s not. Not really.

The start of the 2016-17 season was a crash course in just about everything that could have possibly gone wrong for the Flames doing just that, and a fair bit of it stemmed from training camp problems. Some aspects of that were unavoidable, such as Sean Monahan being injured, or Glen Gulutzan having to get a new team out of bad habits and into good ones within a short time frame.

One such problem was perfectly avoidable, though: Johnny Gaudreau’s failure to report to camp, due to staying unsigned until two days before the season actually started. And even though reports the Flames and Bennett are far apart may be greatly exaggerated, it’s pretty easy to see the parallels.

No need to stress things, though.

We’d all love it if Bennett was incredibly important to the Flames, but unfortunately, he’s just not there yet. That isn’t to say he won’t ever be – maybe he’ll get there this season! – but coming into 2017-18, Bennett projects as a third line centre.

The Flames are better with him in the lineup than without – how rare is it to have a 21-year-old already with over 150 NHL games under his belt? – but this potential holdout (which it isn’t yet, not really; prospects camp hasn’t even started) isn’t at the same level as, “Oh god our leading scorer from last season hasn’t re-signed yet, panic,” like it was with Gaudreau.

Worst case scenario, if the Flames enter the season without Bennett to start, they’ll hurt for it, but they also have a much better chance at overcoming his potential absence than they would have Gaudreau’s. Also, it may take Bennett some time to get back up to speed, but he wouldn’t be entering the season blind. He’s already played a full season under Gulutzan, and really came to life during the playoffs under him. If, for whatever reason, Bennett misses any time, he’ll still be coming in knowing what’s expected of him and what he has to do.

Missing camp hurts Bennett more than it does the Flames, though.

And this is all assuming Bennett stays without a contract for another month. What are the chances that happens?

We don’t even know why Bennett hasn’t re-signed yet. Is it a salary issue? Is it a term issue? Is it both? Do the Flames want to lock Bennett up longer, and Bennett just wants a one-year deal, or is it vice versa? We have no clue.

A year ago, knives were out for Gaudreau. Reportedly, he wanted excess of $8 million in way of a cap hit. Editorially, he was greedy and not a team player for it.

There have been no such pieces on Bennett because… well… there can’t be. It’s been total radio silence. Even if someone wanted to be mad at Bennett for not having a contract yet, nobody would even know what to be mad at him for.

This allows for less external discussion, but it also allows for significantly less drama. For all of us on the outside will ever know, talks between the Flames and Bennett have been perfectly amicable. And really, as nice as it would be to actually know where things stand, this way is much better. What good does a tweet from an insider suggesting that Bennett may go overseas do anybody?

Way back when, reportedly the Flames wanted Mark Giordano’s cap hit to be the highest one on the Flames. It didn’t seem like it would be possible – not if Gaudreau really wanted that $8 million – but they got it done.

When Bennett does sign, it seems unlikely any fan will be unhappy with the deal. In all likelihood, the worst case scenario is that it’s a perfectly fair deal for both the player and the team. Best case scenario, the Flames probably end up with some kind of discount, one way or another. The Flames aren’t going to be goaded into a bad contract to get a player signed. Especially not when they have all of the leverage at hand: Bennett is a restricted free agent without arbitration rights, just as Gaudreau was a year ago. This is the point of time the Flames will have the most control over their player – especially as Bennett will be eligible for arbitration after this season.

Treliving has’t overpaid on contracts for his restricted free agents – and when it came to sure bets like Monahan and Gaudreau, he was still able to keep the cap hit down. It would be odd if the pattern suddenly broke with Bennett.