Report: Flames and Sam Bennett are not close on a deal

There’s a bit of news regarding the Calgary Flames’ negotiations with restricted free agent forward Sam Bennett… and it’s not great. According to a report from TSN’s Darren Dreger, the two sides are not close on a deal right now.

Bennett is in a unique position in two ways. First, he’s coming out of his entry level deal with two full seasons in the National Hockey League and zero time spent in the minors. Second, he’s only got two years of NHL experience and if you look at some of his comparable players in terms of experience, age and production the comparisons are close but they’re not perfect.

And the comparisons, money-wise, aren’t amazing for Bennett from a negotiation standpoint.

The Bennett side probably began the summer hoping for a number close to three million, but deals like Faksa and Brown (over three years) and Andrighetto and Duclair (over shorter terms) have probably dragged the “market” down over the past couple months.

Main camp opens in roughly 10 days, so there’s still time to get a deal done without Bennett missing time. But the clock, as the saying goes, is ticking.