The Penguins should throw Mitch Marner money at Sam Bennett instead

It's time for the Penguins to make a hasty, expensive move. Most of the offseason has been about getting Mitch Marner in black and gold, but a certain Florida Panther could be a better long term investment: Sam Bennett.

This might be an overreaction fueled by recency bias with the Stanley Cup Playoffs going on right now, but it's hard to overlook the fact that Sam Bennett should truly be among the candidates to win the Conn Smythe Award.

After Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, Bennett leads the playoff field in goals with a whopping 14, over 50% of his goal output in the regular season.

The Argument to Sign Bennett

The more I watch Bennett (and I've gotten plenty of chances the last three years), I see a hockey player who rises to the occasion. Among the aging core of Penguins right now, outside of Sidney Crosby, who amongst them truly rises in their play when the lights turn on?

Bennett has aged wonderfully. He's enjoying the best years of his career into his late 20's, and he's doing it with one of the most strenuous gameplays of anyone in the NHL.

This dude hits like a truck, and he is an absolute pest to play against. He's much maligned for occasional dirty hits and net-front presence. He gives shades of Evgeni Malkin when he was in his heyday. Bennett is going to forecheck, create chances, and leave the other team with bumps and bruises aplenty.

I think it's time for the Penguins to start being the villains again, and what better way to embrace villainy than signing one of the bigger villains in the game today?

The Price Tag

It's no surprise that Sam Bennett is going to make a lot of money in his upcoming free agency. The Penguins have about $24 million in available cap space this offseason.

The youth movement gives the Penguins a chance to fill the third and fourth lines with young talent this upcoming season instead of old hags like Matt Nieto and Noel Acciari, whom they have money committed to.

However, if the Penguins want to be a playoff team again, they need to make their top lines more dominant to allow their youth lines to grow organically.

Bennett is looking to demand anywhere between $7-$11M a year on his next contract, which will undoubtedly be a long term deal. He has played his way into it and is frankly deserving of it.

Mitch Marner money is looking to be completely and utterly ridiculous, upwards of $13-16M it seems. Let someone else pay that. I know we've been saying get Marner to Pittsburgh, and maybe he's a better fit. But for perhaps slightly cheaper, you could get real, unbridled grit.

In case you haven't been watching, the Penguins don't have any real, unbridled grit.

I would throw $11M a year at Sam Bennett right now. Be on the high end of an offer. Go even more if you're concerned about the state taxes in Pennsylvania as opposed to Florida (which is a massive discrepancy).

Bennett is an X-factor that the big guns on the Penguins need right now. Mitch Marner might drop 100 points, but the Penguins don't exactly need a top line scorer. They need to be feared.

Nobody is afraid of the Penguins right now. Nobody.

But if you add a possessed freight train morphed into a wrecking ball that is actually a really skilled player, opposing teams will pause when they hear "Pittsburgh".

Enough of this soft stuff. It's time to get back to being hated.