Verhaeghe and Bennett Both Hat Trick as Panthers Rout Kraken 8-3

Florida scored more goals on Saturday than it had in any game this season, and two of its forwards made sure the box score would be remembered. Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett both finished with hat tricks in an 8-3 win over the Seattle Kraken, a night that put the Panthers into the NHL record book in two separate ways.

Verhaeghe keeps the hat-trick run going

Verhaeghe didn't need long to make his mark. Earlier in the week, Brady Tkachuk had recorded back-to-back natural hat tricks, and Verhaeghe picked up where his teammate left off by scoring three straight against Seattle. That gives the Panthers a distinction nobody else in league history can claim: they're the first team to have one player record a natural hat trick in three consecutive games.

It was also a milestone for Verhaeghe personally. The hat trick was his fifth in his career and his fourth with Florida. His previous one with the Panthers came on Feb. 2, 2025, so this one ends a long stretch between his best offensive nights in a Florida sweater.

Here's the thing about that streak, though: it's rare for three different outcomes to line up like this, and it says as much about how the Panthers are generating chances as it does about any single finisher. When the puck is getting to the net from multiple angles, a hat trick in one game can turn into a run of them. Verhaeghe is the one converting, but the setup work has to be happening first.

Bennett finally finds the back of the net

Bennett's night had a different feel. He came into Saturday still looking for his first goal of the season, and he didn't waste the opportunity. He scored the game's first goal, then added one in the second and another in the third to complete his fourth career hat trick. His previous one came on Jan. 14, 2022.

When Bennett finished his hat trick, he and Verhaeghe became the first teammates in Panthers history to record hat tricks in the same game. For a franchise that has had plenty of productive forwards over the years, that's a club first worth stopping on.

My read is that Bennett's breakthrough matters more than the three goals suggest. A forward who has gone a stretch without scoring can start to press, and pressing usually costs a player time and confidence. Getting the first goal out of the way early and then scoring twice more tends to ease that pressure fast, and it gives a coach a reason to keep him in the top six without second-guessing.

The power play is finally moving

Florida's special teams had been a problem before this week. Entering the week, the Panthers had scored just one power-play goal. That changed quickly. They went 2-for-4 in Buffalo on Monday, then 4-for-6 against Columbus. They had two chances against Vancouver that didn't go in, and then they added two more against Seattle on Saturday.

Across the week, that works out to six goals on 12 chances, plus two more on Saturday. Following the win, the Panthers are now 9-for-43 on the power play, a success rate of 20.9%. That's still a number that needs to keep climbing, but the trend line has finally turned in the right direction.

Teams that struggle on the man advantage early often find that one good stretch fixes more than the numbers. Confidence builds when the puck starts falling, and players stop forcing low-percentage shots from the perimeter. If Florida can keep moving the puck with the same patience it showed against Seattle, the rate should keep rising.

Markström's return

Jacob Markström was the other storyline on the ice. He left Monday's game in Buffalo with what the team described as "tightness," and he didn't skate in either of the Panthers' other two games during the week. He returned Saturday and made 20 saves to earn his third win of the season, improving the team's record to 3-1-1.

Markström is 36, and the Panthers have every reason to be patient with him. A goalie coming back after time off can look rusty, and the concern was that the layoff would show. Instead, Seattle didn't generate much pressure, and his .870 save percentage doesn't reflect how he played. Still, that number came against a shooting team, not a full 60 minutes of Seattle's best looks, so it's worth watching whether he finds that sharpness again as the workload increases.

The bigger picture is simple. Florida needs Markström healthy for the stretch run, and the best thing the club can do is let him get all the time he needs to get back to full strength. Rushing him back would be the wrong move, even with the standings tight.

The four-goal game that still hasn't happened

Eight goals and two hat tricks would normally be the whole story, but there was a side note for the fans at Amerant Bank Arena. Verhaeghe was the last Panthers player to score four goals in a game, back in 2023, and plenty of the crowd was hoping he or Bennett would do it again on Saturday. Neither did.

That leaves a clear target. The 2026-27 season is only 10 games old, so there are still 74 games left for the next Florida player to record four goals in one night. It may be a long shot in any single game, but the Panthers have shown they can produce a lot of quality chances, and four-goal games usually come from teams that keep pushing the pace.

What's next: Ottawa and Pittsburgh

The schedule doesn't ease up. Florida heads north to face Ottawa on Tuesday, where Brady Tkachuk's former team will counter with Linus Ullmark, who is still undefeated this season. After that, the Panthers go straight to Pittsburgh to play Sidney Crosby and the Penguins on Wednesday night.

Two games in two nights against strong opponents will test whether Saturday's offense was a one-night burst or the start of something sustainable. Ullmark's form makes the Ottawa game a real challenge, and Pittsburgh always brings a tough, structured game. If Florida can keep its power play humming and get Markström through the back-to-back without setbacks, this week could set the tone for the rest of October.