Sharks Will Miss Benning: ‘We need more guys like Matt Benning’

Matt Benning was a leader for the San Jose Sharks, to the end.

Despite being a healthy scratch at times this year, and playing just 21 games over the last two seasons because of major hip surgery in January, the 30-year-old veteran defenseman, inked to a four-year, $6 million contract in the summer of 2022, kept trying to make a positive impact on the Sharks.

Case in point, Benning went out of his way to pump up 19-year-old top prospect Will Smith, who started his rookie campaign on an eight-game scoreless slump.

“Playing in this league at 19 is very hard. I told him that. I just gave him some words of encouragement,” Benning told San Jose Hockey Now in Utah last Sunday. “He’s a good player. He’s a smart player. I said trust yourself a little bit more out there. You’re a great player. It’s a hard league. Hang on to pucks a little more. He’s a strong guy. I shared with him in Edmonton, I had two guys under 160 pounds on our team, and how they were effective. He’s well over that.”

Benning was talking about Tyler Ennis and Kailer Yamamoto, both who have carved out solid NHL careers.

“It was more just encouraging him to, he does a good job in getting his legs out and protecting the puck,” Benning said. “Be there on the confidence booster side, checking in with him, how he’s doing, [he’s under] a lot of pressure.”

So chances are, Benning was pleased as punch to see Will Smith break his slump on Thursday with two highlight-reel goals.

Of course, excuse Benning if the San Jose Sharks weren’t so much on his mind. On Wednesday, San Jose sent Benning, a 2025 conditional third, and a 2026 sixth to the Toronto Maple Leafs for defenseman Timothy Liljegren. Benning has joined the Leafs, but there’s a chance that they could trade him again soon.

On Thursday, SJHN caught up with a number of Sharks, all happy to pay tribute to Benning.

“We got to know each other through training camp and the first part of the season,” Smith said. “He’ll obviously be missed, but it’s part of the business.”

Luke Kunin and Mikael Granlund know Benning better, back to their days with the Nashville Predators.

Kunin and Benning, in particular, were close friends, celebrating Halloween with joint costumes and co-managing a fantasy football team in the Sharks’ locker room fantasy football league.

“It’s the hard part of this business. Everything’s great about this game, but that’s the one unfortunate thing,” Kunin said. “He has played with a lot of good players and good teams, and whether he’s in the lineup or not, I think he’s making an impact in any way that he can.”

Granlund echoed Kunin: “He’s one of the top guys as a human being and a good player, great guy, but that’s part of the business, and we’re gonna miss him around the locker room.”

Smith, of course, isn’t the only young player that Benning impacted.

“I was pretty sad to see him go,” Henry Thrun, 23, said. “Someone that really took care of me, both on and off the ice, someone that I considered a good friend and a good mentor…[He] was always someone that got that light around the room, put a smile on your face.”

One of the San Jose Sharks’ longest-tenured players, the still-young Mario Ferraro had a similar sentiment, stating: “He also takes pride in the same type of things that I do out there. He loves to block shots. He loves to do the little things that maybe don’t show up on the on the stat sheet, and he’s just a team guy, so he’s going to be missed a lot. Toronto is lucky to have him.”

“It was a tough decision to take him out of those games, and he kept his head up and kept working, he was the last guy on the ice,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky said, before adding, “That’s what you want from your veteran players, we need more guys like Matt Benning.”

The San Jose Sharks locker room isn’t forgetting Benning anytime soon, that’s for sure.

“He’s just a good teammate, which is the No. 1 thing that you’re going to remember about somebody, when you’re done playing. You’re not really going to talk much about what they did on the ice. You’re going to talk about who they were as person and who they were as a teammate,” Ferraro said.