Stanley Cup champion Sam Bennett made quite a few enemies in Toronto the past couple seasons.
Bennett racked up 20 minutes in penalties during the Florida Panthers' 2023 playoff series victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs and effectively took out Leafs youngster Matthew Knies with a vicious hit. A year later and Leafs fans still aren't over it... meanwhile, Bennett is a Stanley Cup champion and, by his account, Leafs fans are begging him to sign in Toronto.
On TSN 1050's First Up radio show earlier this week Bennett shared that facct that Leafs fans have been approaching him all summer and asking him to sign with the team next offseason.
“Since I’m here [in Toronto] all summer… fans see me all the time, and they actually always have like, something to say, like, they hate me, but they always end with, ‘I want you to be a Leaf one day,'” Bennett said.
And, honestly, can you blame Leafs fans? The Leafs have been missing some grit from their lineup for some time now and Bennett is an absolute pain to play against.
“I think there’s definitely a lot of people that that don’t like the way I play. But I think it goes for a lot of guys on our team,” Bennett said. “Part of what makes us successful, I think, is we have so many guys that are willing to do whatever it takes to win. And it can be hard. It can be nasty at times, but sometimes it’s necessary to just do whatever it takes to win, and we have a lot of guys that have bought into that. And it shows for how much success we’ve had over the last two years.”
Honestly... Bennett is exactly the type of player that the Leafs should be targeting in free agency.
