NHL free agency is about to begin. The Panthers still have a few spots to figure out

Miami Herald

6 hours ago

When Matthew Tkachuk requested to be traded to the Florida Panthers three years ago, the decision came down in large part to three major points.
'No. 1, where can I win? Here,' Tkachuk said. 'No. 2, where can I make the most money? That was also here. No. 3 was like, outside of the rink, where was the best place to be? That's pretty obvious. Down here is No. 1 in the league. That was my list, and I have a feeling that's probably pretty much common for a lot of players.'
It's a decision a few of his teammates still have to make with the market opening for free agency at noon Tuesday. The Panthers on Friday re-signed Sam Bennett, who centers Tkachuk's line, to an eight-year deal with an annual cap hit of $8 million.
Their other two major pending free agents in defenseman Aaron Ekblad and forward Brad Marchand remain unsigned as of Monday morning.
A few other key contributors to Florida's second consecutive Stanley Cup — namely defenseman Nate Schmidt, centers Tomas Nosek and Nico Sturm, and backup goaltender Vitek Vanecek — are also unsigned and will all but assuredly be testing the open market.
That's because the Panthers only have so much money to work with and decisions have to be made.
After Bennett's extension, Florida has just $11 million in cap space remaining before they give deals to two restricted free agents in new backup goaltender Daniil Tarasov and forward Mackie Samoskevich, which will likely be about $1 million apiece for next season.
That would give Florida about $9 million to play with. It's almost assuredly not enough to make things work with both Marchand and Ekblad on the books unless the Panthers clear salary elsewhere. Ekblad's annual cap hit on his previous deal was $7.5 million, while Marchand's was $6.125 million (although Florida paid only a fraction of that after acquiring him at the trade deadline from the Boston Bruins in March). How Florida proceeds with the two will dictate how the rest of their free agency will unfold. Florida's main needs at this point are a fourth-line center and a defenseman if Ekblad doesn't re-sign.
Tkachuk obviously would love for the full core to stay together. President of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito has done a stellar job doing that to this point, with eight players — Tkachuk, Bennett and fellow forwards Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Anton Lundell plus defensemen Gustav Forsling and Seth Jones — all signed through at least the 2029-30 season.
But individual business decisions need to be made as well. He understands that.
'The guys that are up for deals, if they have questions, you answer,' Tkachuk said, 'but at the end of the day, I just tell them 'Make as much money as you can' because that's what you want for your players. You want to win. We've done that. We want to keep doing that with the guys that are here, but you cannot fault guys for making as much money as they can. I'm proud of all those guys for how they played. It's hard for some guys to play in a contract year when there's some uncertainty, and you would have never been able to tell with those guys. They were absolutely incredible. Hopefully they can stay, but again, who knows?'
Until the deals are signed or not signed, Zito and the players are the only ones who truly know at this point. Zito has worked wonders to get the roster stability to this point, but there are always casualties at the end of each season following a big playoff run.
After the 2023 Stanley Cup Final appearance, forward Anthony Duclair, defenseman Radko Gudas and backup goaltender Alex Lyon were the big departures.
After winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in 2024, they saw defensemen Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, forwards Kevin Stenlund and Vladimir Tarasenko, and backup goaltender Anthony Stolarz leave for more money than Florida was able to offer. Other contributors in fourth-line forwards Nick Cousins and Ryan Lomberg also left for other opportunities.
There will be more of the same this offseason. The extent of it will be seen in full effect this week.
'Everything is so intertwined,' Zito said. 'When you spend to the cap and you do it for as many years as we have and commit to as many guys as we have, the wiggle room on little things is really, really difficult. 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.'
But regardless of who is on the roster, Zito remains confident that the culture and work ethic built inside the Panthers' dressing room will remain as they continue their winning ways.
'I think there is a respect for the game that our group has in tandem with respect for each other,' Zito said. 'They are able to pull the fun out of whatever it is, and we're really lucky, really blessed to have good people who care about each other, who love hockey and who want to win. It's pretty simple.'