Sam Bennett Appears To Have Found Scoring Touch After Slow Start To Season

There has been plenty of talk in recent weeks about the scoring output of the Tkachuk brothers, particularly since they were placed on the same forward line.

Matthew Tkachuk is currently riding a modest five-game point streak in which he’s racked up seven assists.

Zooming out further, he’s piled up four goals and 27 points over his past 18 games, a stretch during which he failed to record a point only twice.

Then there’s Brady Tkachuk, who has bounced back from a slow start to the season in a big way.

After going pointless through his first five outings, the younger Tkachuk brother has logged 10 goals and 20 points in the 14 games since.

As for the line’s center, Sam Bennett, things didn’t begin to click point-wise quite as quickly.

During the first nine games that the trio was used as a primary forward line, Bennett logged only three goals, all of which came during an 8-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Oct. 17.

Over the past several games, however, it appears that Bennet has found his scoring touch.

Since the calendar flipped to the month of November, the veteran centerman has started to heat up.

He’s picked up four goals in five games, including his first power play tally during a two-goal effort on Tuesday in Columbus.

“I was just able to get some chances, get some shots on net, and it was one of those nights where it went in for me,” Bennett said afterwards. “I’ll take it, for sure.”

The recent success is no surprise when looking at how often Bennett has been getting pucks on net lately.

After averaging just 1.5 shots per outing over Florida’s first seven games, Bennett has picked up the pace. Over Florida’s past 12 games, Bennett is logging 3.1 shots on goal.

He’s moved up to fourth on the team with 49 total shots this season, trailing only Brady Tkachuk (68), Sam Reinhart (60) and Anton Lundell (50).

It also helps that Bennett’s shots have been finding the back of the net at a higher percentage than most.

His 14.3% success race in turning shots into goals is also fourth on the team, behind only Carter Verhaeghe (23.8%), Reinhart (16.7%) and Brady (14.7%).

We’ll see if he can keep the good times rolling as Bennett continues to log time on one of Florida’s most prolific scoring lines, as well as regular minutes on the Panthers’ power play, which has moved into the NHL’s top ten.

“We had a slow start on the power play,” said Bennett. “But I think the last 10 games we’ve been a lot quicker, a lot crisper puck movement, more direct, and able to score a lot of big goals.”

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Photo caption: Oct 15, 2026; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers centerSamBennett(9) looks on against the Vancouver Canucks during the first period at Amerant Bank Arena. (SamNavarro-Imagn Images)