Sam Reinhart Sets Career-High in Goals

Sunrise, FL – Sam Reinhart’s hot start may just be how his season will go, as a whole. Just 46 games into the season, Reinhart has already notched a career-high of 34 goals. This breaks his previous record of 33 in his first year with the Panthers in 2021-22.

His latest goal came off an offensive zone faceoff to open the scoring against the Nashville Predators on Monday night. Reinhart’s wrist shot was the first of four goals the Cats would score as they broke a season-high four-game losing streak.

“He’s scoring in all kinds of different ways,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said after the game. “Just jumping on a loose puck in the face off, gets it back across his body. He’s just been so good to us. And I understand why we would talk about his goals, but the defensive part of his game is so good. He was playing with two younger players on that line and they become really good and really strong defensively. He’s a penalty killer, he’s a faceoff man. He does it all.”

#NHLAllStar Sam Reinhart is on another level!

Last night, he set a career-high in goals with 34, only 46 games into the season. 🙀 pic.twitter.com/jZ7eeBb9Tl

— NHL (@NHL) January 23, 2024

While the 27-year-old had success with the Panthers in his first two years in Sunrise, he had slow starts before heating up midway through each season. Last year, it took Reinhart 13 games to score his first goal. This year, he already found the back of the net nine times through his first 13 games.

Reinhart has a league-leading 17 power-play goals. On top of that, prior to last Friday’s loss to the Minnesota Wild, he had scored in eight straight games, all on special teams. It’s the longest goal streak in Panthers’ history since Pavel Bure recorded a goal in seven straight games in 2001.

“Any time you are in the conversation with Pavel Bure, that’s pretty cool,’’ Reinhart said after notching the record-setting goal in a 3-2 loss against the Detroit Red Wings on Jan. 17.

Reinhart, with 58 points so far this year, is on pace to break his career-high of 82 in that department as well.

Reinhart, along with Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky will represent the Cats at the NHL All-Star Game in Toronto on Feb. 3.