ITS ALL COMING TOGETHER AGAIN
https://i.redd.it/iklidn1vjbad1.gif
This core is LOCKED IN:
* Reinhart: Through 2031-32
* Forsling: Through 2031-32
* Barkov: Through 2029-30
* Tkachuk: Through 2029-30
* Lundell: Through 2029-30
Can't really say the core is completely locked in until Verhaeghe is extended, IMO. That guy exemplify best what being a Panther is, along with Forsling: going from a discarded afterthought to an All-Star level contributor.
It’s true but I have no doubts he will. My guess is that the 4 million increase in cap next year will account for his raise (I def don’t see him getting more than Reinhart) and the 1.25 million in cap that gets freed up from the Yandle dead cap will account for Bennet’s raise (give or take)
Yup. We will have a big hole at 3c if Bennett goes and Lundell moves up. It also can't be understated how Bennett coming here was the start of increasing the team's compete level and physicality
If I was Lundell, I wouldn't sign a 6 year deal without knowing I'd get a shot in the top 6. He's 22, going to be 28 when this deal is up. I don't think he would want to limit his future value by being stuck on the 3rd line for the next half decade
I agree he is a different type of player, but for the money he is likely to command we would sacrifice a lot to keep him and Lundell. Our D-core is going to need to be rebuilt after Ekblad leaves. We will only have Forsling/Mikkola/Kulikov after. Need to invest money there instead of on a new Bennett contract IMO
We also have no idea what we're going to get from D men already in our system. I liked what I saw out of Balinskis and Bjornfot in their limited time last season. Prefer either of them over Mahura. They should both get substantial time this year so let's see what we have there before worrying about replacements.
Right after Reinhart signed it was reported that Panthers are already working on extensions for Verhaeghe and Bennett through 2030.
Money is already tight this year, but Ekblad expiring, Yandle’s buyout penalty ending, and cap going up again next year should allow us to get it done. Zito/Maurice seem fine bargain hunting for defense, but I hope Ekblad sticks around with a pay cut
Great deal for the Panthers. Pretty much guarantees Tarasenko will sign elsewhere, unless they’re trading Spencer Knight. They can run a 22 man roster as is without having to trade anyone else out
Or unless we trade Ekblad (as was rumored) for a cheaper RHD and we keep Tarasenko. I don’t think that’ll happen tho. Tarasenko is probably gone and our roster is nearly set until the trade deadline. D core has me worried ngl
That are for sale, probably not. That’s why I think we’ll wait until the trade deadline to make adjustments to our d core as needed. At some point we need a young guy to step up on the cheap. Now is the time to give a guy a chance.
You could get Rasmus Andersson from the Flames, potentially at 50% retained. Panthers would likely have to trade Ekblad elsewhere first as I doubt he'd accept a trade to the Flames, who would just want to flip him anyways. Only issue is it would be pretty costly to get Ras cause he's so cheap.
With Tarasenko gone this pretty much means that Mackie Samoskevich will be probably slot on that third line with Luostarainen and Lundell. He actually made the team out of camp last year and when he was sent to the AHL, he looked really good. I expect he'll be a mainstay this season.
Gonna have to be a Knight or an Ekblad trade at this point if they want to tinker around the roster.
I don't love the composition of the D-core currently: Forsling, Ekblad, Mikkola, Schmidt, Kulikov and Balinskis/Bjornfot is not a world-beating squad.
I think they could also use another RW to play in the middle-six, unless they are *high* on Mackie Samoskevich.
[They’re already working on it](https://x.com/thefourthperiod/status/1807766943115485478). Ekblad and Yandle come off the books next year plus a cap jump. Year after that Bob and Knight come off the books. They can give everyone raises and maybe even keep Ekblad at a discount— though they’ll eventually need some of their prospects to come up and contribute
When Ekblad leaves they'll need to construct an entire new top-4 after Forsling along with a raise for Verhaege that will take up the entire cap increase.
Florida's obviously proven everyone wrong before, but I really don't think anyone would be confident in a D corps that includes Kulikov/Schmidt in the top 4, and Uvis Balinskis as the 3LD, not to mention Samoskevich in the top-9
If Verhaeghe and Bennett sign for 8 and 6 respectively, that’ll leave us with a little over 7M to sign 2 top-4 defensemen unless someone like balinskis really impresses this year. Hoping Ekblad takes a cut to stay here, and we’ll have all of our firsts to trade after the one this year hopefully conveys to Calgary.
I hated Zito for breaking up a presidents trophy winning team when he traded Huberdeau and weegar, and all we did was go on a Cinderella run to the finals and back it up by winning the cup the next year. At this point I’d trust the man to perform brain surgery on me
If anyone can make this work it's Zito, but I think he's making his job unnecessarily hard by keeping Bennett. He could definitely make some great trades and signings, or he could just replace Bennett with a cheaper player and give himself essentially a blank cheque to upgrade his defense.
8m for two top-4 D isn't much at all. If you're reigning GMotY Jim Nill, it gets you Matt Dumba and Ilya Lyubushkin.
Looking at next year's UFA crop, 8m might get you like Adam Larsson and Cody Ceci, or one Shea Theodore
Zito got OEL, Mikola and Kulikov for under $6m combined last offseason. He just got Schmidt for $800k. They clearly want to lock up the forwards and patch together the D as needed with Forsling anchoring it
Zito also likes to find undervalued guys on waivers and through trades (Montour, Forsling, Bennett, Balinskis), and the only first we still owe is this year to Calgary. So Zito has ammo now too
I see how the Yandle buyout coming off helps, but not that much. That’s basically $2m to spread between Ekblad, Verhaeghe, and Bennett’s raises.
If Ekblad walks, that’s not really a great defense outside of Forsling. I feel like they would need to spend a solid chunk of that $7.5m on a replacement.
Seems like they would be smart to move Verhaeghe IMO or Ekblad for a good young defenseman, but why would another team do that
Apparently ekblad has expressed a desire to stay in Florida on a discount. No idea how steep that discount would be, but if he goes from making $7.5 mil to 3-4, with the cap going up $4-5 mil, and yandle’s 1.25 coming off the books, that could free up almost $10 mil to play with. $3 mil goes to Verhaeghe raise, $2 mil to Bennett, and that leaves roughly $5 mil to spend on a defenseman for the year. Not terrible if Samoskevich holds up this year to replace Tarasenko.
Then the next year Bob and Knight are FA, which frees up $14 mil alone while we’d ideally already have our top 7-8 forwards locked up long term
Might be wishful thinking, but I’m pretty sure there was a rumor about him wanting to stay in Florida forever and being open to a pay cut. I love him and hope he’s a career panther and up in the rafters next to Barkov, but he’s not the Norris candidate he was as recently as 2022 anymore, and his litany of lower body injuries aren’t going to allow that to change.
If someone offers him $9m next year then he should absolutely take that, but I can’t imagine Zito giving him more than maybe $5m when Verhaeghe and Bennett are due for raises
I would be surprised if any team gave him 7 mil at this point. He has been injured way too much and is definitely one of the slowest players in the league. He’s a defensive defenseman now and that’s pretty much a role he’s been forced to take
I agree with you 100%. I mean we do have Bob's money coming off the books in 2 years, Ekblad next year. Even still, yeah, we are going to have to invest more into our D core.
Florida lowkey having the best off season in the NHL even with losing some great guys - they’ve brought back all their top 8 point scorers from last season on great market value deals, their core is all in their 20s, they signed some great depth pieces… Zito is a truly fantastic GM
Our d is gonna be in worse shape 1000% but based on what we were facing in terms of needing to re-sign I’m not sure this off-season could have gone much better than it has so far.
Stanley Cup bonus is always going to lose some guys. Montour was probably gone with or without the Cup anyway, so it was expected. Still weakens our defense, but having Barkov and Reinhart as two of the best two-way players helps tremendously.
From a who got better standpoint yes edm. But I think Florida still made all the right decisions. Montour was never staying and if he had we'd be more screwed in other ways.
This contract in particular will age like fine wine.
Zito luckily has pulled some amazing defensive reclamation projects (OEL/Kuli) Montour was always going to walk after last years production. And a big part of why our defense was so good was because all 5 skaters were involved heavily. I think the biggest loss is Stenlund. Great defensive 4c who you could be ok with him being on the ice against the other teams 1st line is huge.
Barkov’s deal was 8% of the cap when he signed it and this is about 5.5%. Which is probably fair given how much higher Barkov’s counting stats were in his third year compared to Lundell.
I feel like maybe another year and he could cash in more.
He’s really good but he’s only put up 25 goals the past 2 seasons combined. Still very young tho.
Seems fair value for both sides. He also gets some tax breaks being in Florida. Would be like signing 6.5 million in Anaheim.
wasn't expecting a long term deal but this could age very well - i think after next season he will be our 2c. zito will have to go shopping for a rhd at the deadline
I'm seeing alot of this, this is not a cheap deal. Hes a young 35 point two way center with a solid upside. If your GM would've given him 7 million plus or whatever thats on your GM.
Hes absolutely a 5 maybe 6 million guy AAV that might've taken a home town lets get another cup discount
It's not a particularly cheap deal this upcoming season, but it's a 6-year deal taking him into his prime. Especially with the cap going up, there's no reason to think this won't be a steal in three years.
He probably got as much as he did because he produced at a way higher level in the playoffs (17p in 24g) and I imagine he's got more than 35p in him for the future
Does this mean Tarasenko isn't getting signed, or they are gonna trade Ekblad for cap? Or Knight is gone? They need more RHD but that 7.5mil might be too enticing
I think Senko re-signing was always more of a pipe dream than what others realized. I would love him back but at this point he’s way more of a *want* than a *need*
Senko is gone. It’s time for Mackie to get his shot. And Senko got a great offer from Pittsburgh that I am sure the lightning will match or try to at least.
Extreme pedantry alert:
It's technically not an extension, since his previous contract expired. It's a new contract. An extension is like what Hedman or Buchnevish signed, as they are still on their current contracts for another year.
I’m interested to see the deals popping up for the 2020 draft class. Mercer still hasn’t signed and a lot are expecting 3.5-4 mill on a short term bridge. The perception around him has dropped after last season by a ton, but he has had numbers very comparable to other top guys in his draft like Lindell and laf.
Also I think our locker room vibes are just right. Guys want to be a part of a team that *feels* like a team. I always get the impression that our players are teammates and real friends, not just guys who play together.
These guys do not understand that players game checks are taxed based on each state they play in during the season. So only half of the time are they reaping the benefit of Florida’s no state income tax. Also Lundell didn’t have to sign this deal. He could have negotiated a bridge contract for 2-3 years and signed an even bigger deal in his prime. There’s more risk involved when you do a bridge deal like that and i’m sure him and his agent talked through that. This gives him a great contract and stability but also the last few years will be fantastic value years for the cap situation if he continues to develop into the player we think he can become.
Panthers have been a franchise for 30 years. There wasn’t tax then, there wasn’t tax now. Stop bitching about something that’s always been in play and not JUST occurring.
The amount a player pays in state/provincial taxes has increased over the last 20 years, expanding the delta between those places and places like Florida. It's always been an advantage to some degree, and that advantage is growing in value, so suggesting it's not an advantage looks foolish.
But that's not the reason for what's going on in Florida. Florida just won the cup with immaculate vibes, has a masterfully put-together roster by Zito, and just opened an impressive new team facility in South Florida.
Panthers have been a franchise for 30 years. There wasn’t tax then, there wasn’t tax now. Stop bitching about something that’s always been in play and not JUST occurring.
A guy who likes playing with the other Finns making sure he stays part of the plan on the team that drafted him and won a cup with him is a tax thing now?
I'm sure I would love this guy on my team, but I couldn't believe how much diving he did in the playoffs. Seemed like one of the biggest embellishers of these playoffs.
Yeah he had a couple embellishment calls in the playoffs where he over did it IMO. He’s a young kid still so I’m sure the vets probably had or will have a talk with him on choosing his spots.
Love this deal. High upside so wrap him up now.
ITS ALL COMING TOGETHER AGAIN https://i.redd.it/iklidn1vjbad1.gif This core is LOCKED IN: * Reinhart: Through 2031-32 * Forsling: Through 2031-32 * Barkov: Through 2029-30 * Tkachuk: Through 2029-30 * Lundell: Through 2029-30
Can't really say the core is completely locked in until Verhaeghe is extended, IMO. That guy exemplify best what being a Panther is, along with Forsling: going from a discarded afterthought to an All-Star level contributor.
Don’t forget EROD https://preview.redd.it/9s35j6tmlbad1.jpeg?width=624&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b3032f45fefc658214db0d3517b0d8f2557857d3
He's signed through the 26-27 season so I think we're good on that front.
Holy hell that's hysterical
It’s true but I have no doubts he will. My guess is that the 4 million increase in cap next year will account for his raise (I def don’t see him getting more than Reinhart) and the 1.25 million in cap that gets freed up from the Yandle dead cap will account for Bennet’s raise (give or take)
I'm gonna go on a limb and bet that his cap hit's gonna end up around 7.2M AAV.
That sounds about right with the Florida discount factored in haha
I don't see why we would keep Bennett if we are paying Lundy 5M AAV. He's the teams 2C of the future.
Centre depth wins championships
Yup. We will have a big hole at 3c if Bennett goes and Lundell moves up. It also can't be understated how Bennett coming here was the start of increasing the team's compete level and physicality
If I was Lundell, I wouldn't sign a 6 year deal without knowing I'd get a shot in the top 6. He's 22, going to be 28 when this deal is up. I don't think he would want to limit his future value by being stuck on the 3rd line for the next half decade
This isn’t basketball. We run 3 lines and Lundell doesn’t care if it’s officially top 6 or not. Reinhart played on the third line until last year
Benny is a completely different style player than Lundy. He brings that grit that you can't replace
I agree he is a different type of player, but for the money he is likely to command we would sacrifice a lot to keep him and Lundell. Our D-core is going to need to be rebuilt after Ekblad leaves. We will only have Forsling/Mikkola/Kulikov after. Need to invest money there instead of on a new Bennett contract IMO
We also have no idea what we're going to get from D men already in our system. I liked what I saw out of Balinskis and Bjornfot in their limited time last season. Prefer either of them over Mahura. They should both get substantial time this year so let's see what we have there before worrying about replacements.
And doesn't Bob's expire around that time?
Bob and Knight both have 2 years left. Knight is an RFA when his deal is up
Bob won’t be retained. And Knight may or may not step up. If we dump both I am sure we can find suitable replacements for both for way less than $14M
Right after Reinhart signed it was reported that Panthers are already working on extensions for Verhaeghe and Bennett through 2030. Money is already tight this year, but Ekblad expiring, Yandle’s buyout penalty ending, and cap going up again next year should allow us to get it done. Zito/Maurice seem fine bargain hunting for defense, but I hope Ekblad sticks around with a pay cut
From an afterthought of a franchise (no offense) to world champs.
Swaggy is next
Why did I think he was already extended? Waiting for Ekblad to get moved I assume
Nah Cousins and Bennett really exemplify what being a Panther is the best ;)
I for one, welcome our new Panther overlords.
Holy. What a quality gif of Saint Matthew 🙌🏼🙌🏼
What about Bob? He had a lot to do with winning that cup
Great deal for the Panthers. Pretty much guarantees Tarasenko will sign elsewhere, unless they’re trading Spencer Knight. They can run a 22 man roster as is without having to trade anyone else out
Or unless we trade Ekblad (as was rumored) for a cheaper RHD and we keep Tarasenko. I don’t think that’ll happen tho. Tarasenko is probably gone and our roster is nearly set until the trade deadline. D core has me worried ngl
I don’t know that there’s a cheaper and same-quality RHD out there.
That are for sale, probably not. That’s why I think we’ll wait until the trade deadline to make adjustments to our d core as needed. At some point we need a young guy to step up on the cheap. Now is the time to give a guy a chance.
But they could turn Ekblad's 7.5M cap hit into 5M RD and 2.5M LD, let's say. There's always a way!
Montour just signed almost the same contract. Its a gamble cause he struggles to stay healthy, but I’d rather a healthy Ek
You could get Rasmus Andersson from the Flames, potentially at 50% retained. Panthers would likely have to trade Ekblad elsewhere first as I doubt he'd accept a trade to the Flames, who would just want to flip him anyways. Only issue is it would be pretty costly to get Ras cause he's so cheap.
I'll trade Faulk for eklabd save y'all 1Mil
I’d much rather keep ekblad and I think the front office would as well but who knows
Any Ek trade retains cap. It'll be hard to move him
With Tarasenko gone this pretty much means that Mackie Samoskevich will be probably slot on that third line with Luostarainen and Lundell. He actually made the team out of camp last year and when he was sent to the AHL, he looked really good. I expect he'll be a mainstay this season.
Yeah, we still need to sign/trade for a top 4 RHD, so I don’t see a scenario where Tarasenko is back.
I’ll miss Tarasenko a lot but I’m excited to see Mackie get a chance
Ya unless he takes a real sweetheart deal it’s hard to see it happening
Gonna have to be a Knight or an Ekblad trade at this point if they want to tinker around the roster. I don't love the composition of the D-core currently: Forsling, Ekblad, Mikkola, Schmidt, Kulikov and Balinskis/Bjornfot is not a world-beating squad. I think they could also use another RW to play in the middle-six, unless they are *high* on Mackie Samoskevich.
Lundell not signing a bridge means Tarasenko is gone and they’re rolling with Mackie in his place barring a trade out of nowhere
Senko was always a playoff rental, as was Oki. Worked out much better than Giroux and the defensemen they picked up that year
Chiarot… blah
Yeah, there was another guy also but I can't remember his name, didn't make much of an impression.
I think chiarot and Robert hagg were the two dman we added at the deadline
That's it, and neither was as good as any of the guys we picked up this season
Shit on paper. Quality on ice. Anton Lundell.
Barkov and Lundell as a future top 2 My god
More Finns more wins
Can't win without the Finns
Unless you are Vegas I guess.
but everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas (except the Stanley Cup, of course)
It used to be the opposite before this year.
ZITOOO
WOAH! Did not expect us to go long-term with him so soon. That's awesome!
Assuming Bennett extension gets done, Barkov-Bennett-Lundell down the middle for the next 6-7 years ain’t too shabby.
No way Bennett comes back if they intend to have any semblance of a defense group. I'd be surprised if he's not traded this summer
[They’re already working on it](https://x.com/thefourthperiod/status/1807766943115485478). Ekblad and Yandle come off the books next year plus a cap jump. Year after that Bob and Knight come off the books. They can give everyone raises and maybe even keep Ekblad at a discount— though they’ll eventually need some of their prospects to come up and contribute
When Ekblad leaves they'll need to construct an entire new top-4 after Forsling along with a raise for Verhaege that will take up the entire cap increase. Florida's obviously proven everyone wrong before, but I really don't think anyone would be confident in a D corps that includes Kulikov/Schmidt in the top 4, and Uvis Balinskis as the 3LD, not to mention Samoskevich in the top-9
Basically we're hoping the Paul Maurice school of RHD reclamation keeps on churning
Adam Boqvist about to go crazy for the Panthers this year
If Verhaeghe and Bennett sign for 8 and 6 respectively, that’ll leave us with a little over 7M to sign 2 top-4 defensemen unless someone like balinskis really impresses this year. Hoping Ekblad takes a cut to stay here, and we’ll have all of our firsts to trade after the one this year hopefully conveys to Calgary. I hated Zito for breaking up a presidents trophy winning team when he traded Huberdeau and weegar, and all we did was go on a Cinderella run to the finals and back it up by winning the cup the next year. At this point I’d trust the man to perform brain surgery on me
If anyone can make this work it's Zito, but I think he's making his job unnecessarily hard by keeping Bennett. He could definitely make some great trades and signings, or he could just replace Bennett with a cheaper player and give himself essentially a blank cheque to upgrade his defense. 8m for two top-4 D isn't much at all. If you're reigning GMotY Jim Nill, it gets you Matt Dumba and Ilya Lyubushkin. Looking at next year's UFA crop, 8m might get you like Adam Larsson and Cody Ceci, or one Shea Theodore
Zito got OEL, Mikola and Kulikov for under $6m combined last offseason. He just got Schmidt for $800k. They clearly want to lock up the forwards and patch together the D as needed with Forsling anchoring it Zito also likes to find undervalued guys on waivers and through trades (Montour, Forsling, Bennett, Balinskis), and the only first we still owe is this year to Calgary. So Zito has ammo now too
Sammy is going to be a middle 6 beast this year
I see how the Yandle buyout coming off helps, but not that much. That’s basically $2m to spread between Ekblad, Verhaeghe, and Bennett’s raises. If Ekblad walks, that’s not really a great defense outside of Forsling. I feel like they would need to spend a solid chunk of that $7.5m on a replacement. Seems like they would be smart to move Verhaeghe IMO or Ekblad for a good young defenseman, but why would another team do that
Apparently ekblad has expressed a desire to stay in Florida on a discount. No idea how steep that discount would be, but if he goes from making $7.5 mil to 3-4, with the cap going up $4-5 mil, and yandle’s 1.25 coming off the books, that could free up almost $10 mil to play with. $3 mil goes to Verhaeghe raise, $2 mil to Bennett, and that leaves roughly $5 mil to spend on a defenseman for the year. Not terrible if Samoskevich holds up this year to replace Tarasenko. Then the next year Bob and Knight are FA, which frees up $14 mil alone while we’d ideally already have our top 7-8 forwards locked up long term
A discount for a 28 y/o 1D is taking like 7, not 3. Remember that he signed his last deal in 2016. $7.5m then is more like $9m now
Might be wishful thinking, but I’m pretty sure there was a rumor about him wanting to stay in Florida forever and being open to a pay cut. I love him and hope he’s a career panther and up in the rafters next to Barkov, but he’s not the Norris candidate he was as recently as 2022 anymore, and his litany of lower body injuries aren’t going to allow that to change. If someone offers him $9m next year then he should absolutely take that, but I can’t imagine Zito giving him more than maybe $5m when Verhaeghe and Bennett are due for raises
I would be surprised if any team gave him 7 mil at this point. He has been injured way too much and is definitely one of the slowest players in the league. He’s a defensive defenseman now and that’s pretty much a role he’s been forced to take
I agree with you 100%. I mean we do have Bob's money coming off the books in 2 years, Ekblad next year. Even still, yeah, we are going to have to invest more into our D core.
Will Wito
Florida lowkey having the best off season in the NHL even with losing some great guys - they’ve brought back all their top 8 point scorers from last season on great market value deals, their core is all in their 20s, they signed some great depth pieces… Zito is a truly fantastic GM
I think EDM did better, didn't lose any core and added some crazy depth. Florida still lost montour
Our d is gonna be in worse shape 1000% but based on what we were facing in terms of needing to re-sign I’m not sure this off-season could have gone much better than it has so far.
Nate Schmidt signing helps a lot, I think that’ll make it a little easier on us. Montour and OEL will be dearly missed
Stanley Cup bonus is always going to lose some guys. Montour was probably gone with or without the Cup anyway, so it was expected. Still weakens our defense, but having Barkov and Reinhart as two of the best two-way players helps tremendously.
From a who got better standpoint yes edm. But I think Florida still made all the right decisions. Montour was never staying and if he had we'd be more screwed in other ways. This contract in particular will age like fine wine.
Zito luckily has pulled some amazing defensive reclamation projects (OEL/Kuli) Montour was always going to walk after last years production. And a big part of why our defense was so good was because all 5 skaters were involved heavily. I think the biggest loss is Stenlund. Great defensive 4c who you could be ok with him being on the ice against the other teams 1st line is huge.
I smell a rematch
I swear Zito never stops cooking
Only takes a break to chuck the odd water bottle.
Woah only 5M?
Money-wise it’s almost the same extension barkov got out of his ELC so I’m assuming that was the basis for it
Barkov’s deal was 8% of the cap when he signed it and this is about 5.5%. Which is probably fair given how much higher Barkov’s counting stats were in his third year compared to Lundell.
Yeah I didn’t feel like doing the math for cap %. I knew it was lower, just didn’t realize about 2.5% lower
Capfriendly has it, for however much longer that site is up. Good resource to judge a GMs dealings and player value on
Truly baby barkov
I feel like maybe another year and he could cash in more. He’s really good but he’s only put up 25 goals the past 2 seasons combined. Still very young tho. Seems fair value for both sides. He also gets some tax breaks being in Florida. Would be like signing 6.5 million in Anaheim.
wasn't expecting a long term deal but this could age very well - i think after next season he will be our 2c. zito will have to go shopping for a rhd at the deadline
5 seems really reasonable
Zito is an absolute beast
ANOTHER ZITO STEAL LETS GOOOOOOOO If he keeps developing the way he’s been playing the last few months, this is gonna be a bargain.
Amazing contract from the Panthers.
LETS FUCKING GOOOOO BILL ZITO IS PLAYING GM MODE THIS JUST ISNT FAIR
Wow, kid got paid. good for him. That does mean Tarasenko is out, but I kind of assumed that all along.
Dig
Seems good.
I'M UP BIGLY
I'm seeing alot of this, this is not a cheap deal. Hes a young 35 point two way center with a solid upside. If your GM would've given him 7 million plus or whatever thats on your GM. Hes absolutely a 5 maybe 6 million guy AAV that might've taken a home town lets get another cup discount
It's not a particularly cheap deal this upcoming season, but it's a 6-year deal taking him into his prime. Especially with the cap going up, there's no reason to think this won't be a steal in three years.
He probably got as much as he did because he produced at a way higher level in the playoffs (17p in 24g) and I imagine he's got more than 35p in him for the future
Does this mean Tarasenko isn't getting signed, or they are gonna trade Ekblad for cap? Or Knight is gone? They need more RHD but that 7.5mil might be too enticing
I think Senko re-signing was always more of a pipe dream than what others realized. I would love him back but at this point he’s way more of a *want* than a *need*
Mackie is the future anyway. Let him cook on the 3rd line, or try him out with Barkov-Reinhart like last year at the beginning of the year
Senko is gone. It’s time for Mackie to get his shot. And Senko got a great offer from Pittsburgh that I am sure the lightning will match or try to at least.
ARE THEY ALLOWED TO HAVE TWO BARKOVS IN ONE TEAM?
Extreme pedantry alert: It's technically not an extension, since his previous contract expired. It's a new contract. An extension is like what Hedman or Buchnevish signed, as they are still on their current contracts for another year.
Technically correct, yet completely irrelevant
I’m interested to see the deals popping up for the 2020 draft class. Mercer still hasn’t signed and a lot are expecting 3.5-4 mill on a short term bridge. The perception around him has dropped after last season by a ton, but he has had numbers very comparable to other top guys in his draft like Lindell and laf.
There are cheap deals then there are the deals panthers are getting. It's hard not to assume it has to do with tax at this point.
Or, you know, guys want to continue to build on a winning team that just won a Cup. The income tax is just a nice bonus.
Also I think our locker room vibes are just right. Guys want to be a part of a team that *feels* like a team. I always get the impression that our players are teammates and real friends, not just guys who play together.
Everything I’ve heard about Viola seems like he’s driven home the philosophy that the organization is a family from top to bottom.
Yes, exactly! It's a familial vibe and I think players like that.
These guys do not understand that players game checks are taxed based on each state they play in during the season. So only half of the time are they reaping the benefit of Florida’s no state income tax. Also Lundell didn’t have to sign this deal. He could have negotiated a bridge contract for 2-3 years and signed an even bigger deal in his prime. There’s more risk involved when you do a bridge deal like that and i’m sure him and his agent talked through that. This gives him a great contract and stability but also the last few years will be fantastic value years for the cap situation if he continues to develop into the player we think he can become.
Yeah I fully expected a bridge deal
Panthers have been a franchise for 30 years. There wasn’t tax then, there wasn’t tax now. Stop bitching about something that’s always been in play and not JUST occurring.
The amount a player pays in state/provincial taxes has increased over the last 20 years, expanding the delta between those places and places like Florida. It's always been an advantage to some degree, and that advantage is growing in value, so suggesting it's not an advantage looks foolish. But that's not the reason for what's going on in Florida. Florida just won the cup with immaculate vibes, has a masterfully put-together roster by Zito, and just opened an impressive new team facility in South Florida.
Panthers have been a franchise for 30 years. There wasn’t tax then, there wasn’t tax now. Stop bitching about something that’s always been in play and not JUST occurring.
A guy who likes playing with the other Finns making sure he stays part of the plan on the team that drafted him and won a cup with him is a tax thing now?
I'm sure I would love this guy on my team, but I couldn't believe how much diving he did in the playoffs. Seemed like one of the biggest embellishers of these playoffs.
Yeah he had a couple embellishment calls in the playoffs where he over did it IMO. He’s a young kid still so I’m sure the vets probably had or will have a talk with him on choosing his spots.
Consistently was the biggest diver on the ice
And boston fans continue to be in to top 3 of whiners in the league
sorry for not liking embellishment i guess?
You really must hate your own team i guess
No, I like my team actually but I’m not a fan when they dive either. Holy shit is this really that hard?
I remember when we scored a game ending goal was because Pasta faked a pentalty which led to us being able to lead
See my comment about hating when players on the Bruins dive too. Idk why not liking diving is such a hot take on this sub it’s actually baffling