Up front, the Panthers have Bennett (eight more seasons), Marchand (six), Aleksander Barkov (five), Anton Lundell (five), Sam Reinhart (seven), Matthew Tkachuk (five) and Carter Verhaeghe (eight). On defense, they have Ekblad (eight), Gustav Forsling (seven) and Seth Jones (five).

Sometimes you just have to keep at it so that you can fit everybody and keep the team and the core of the team together.’

With Bennett being the latest center to sign an extension with his team, the UFA market for a middleman becomes even thinner. John Tavares, Matt Duchene and Brock Nelson were also all pending UFA centers who re-signed with their respective teams.