FORT LAUDERDALE — While the literal rain tried — and failed— to ruin the Florida Panthers’ Stanley Cup Championship parade and ceremony on Sunday, the figurative rain struck the franchise the day after.
On Monday, the gates of free agency opened and the Panthers lost a froth of key pieces to their Stanley Cup run. Fan favorite, grinder Ryan Lomberg, is off to Calgary, big-minute defenseman Brandon Montour is off to Seattle, penalty kill extraordinaire Kevin Stenlund is off to Utah and successful free-agency pickups from the prior offseason, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and backup goalie Anthony Stolarz, received nice paydays in Toronto.
Star trade deadline pickup Vladimir Tarasenko and key depth pieces Kyle Okposo, Steven Lorentz and Nick Cousins l remain free agents.
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That’s the nature of this business. When you win a Cup , teams will pay a premium for your players, and the Panthers had to learn to deal with that less than a week after winning their first NHL championship.
“You’ll hear the phrase ‘another Cup in the room,' ” Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito said. “Somebody who’s been through it. And for those of you who were with us through last year, is there anybody who doesn’t think that experience didn’t lend itself to supporting and helping this year's experience? So, from that standpoint, the players become more coveted.
“With the salary cap right now, and then the supply and demand of the players, it’s almost a secondary thing. It’s just trying to fit the square into the square hole. You could have a more valuable triangle, but you need a square. I tell a story about trades, and it’s not always about trades ... it’s about the result."
Zito had quite an interesting way to paint the situation he is facing right now.
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“So you may have a situation where you’re in the city and you have a ski chalet in the mountains and your dream is to have your seven best friends come for a ski weekend, and they show up and it’s awesome,” Zito said. “Thursday night, you’re going up to ski and you have four Maseratis and a blizzard comes and you can’t drive. The neighbor says ‘I have four SUVs, want to trade?’ Absolutely! And you got killed on the trade, but you had your weekend and that’s almost where we are now with regard to personnel acquisitions. It’s like you’re trying to put the puzzle together.”
Panthers' core intact with Barkov, Tkachuk, Forsling locked up
The bottom line, though, is that the team's core is still intact. Captain Aleksander Barkov, star forward Matthew Tkachuk and lockdown defenseman Gustav Forsling are each locked up for at least another five years. The Panthers added Sam Reinhart to the list with an eight-year, $69 million extension late Sunday night.
“It’s a big head start,” Zito said of the importance of his core pieces being here long-term. “If I can twist your question a little bit, ‘If you are not successful in getting every piece that you want to get, is the train still moving forward?’ Before you can build, you have to sustain it. That’s the hope for sure. I think it’s the case, but we’re still trying to get it right. We’ll still never stop trying to get the right pieces and the right people.”
Reinhart set the franchise record for goals in a single season with 67 — 57 in the regular season, 10 in the playoffs — while scoring the game-winning goal in Game 7 of the Cup Final. He also finished fourth in the race for the Selke Trophy, which is awarded to the NHL’s top defensive forward.
“We wanted to keep him,” Zito said, “and he wanted to stay. We worked through the process. His agent was a gentleman. Everyone was all with the intention of trying to take care of Sam and still have a chance to win, and that was paramount to him and his decision making. Nothing but respect and happiness on that end. We’re just thrilled that he’s a part of it.”
The Panthers also locked up defenseman Dmitry Kulikov — the man who made the game-saving play that led to Reinhart’s winning goal — to a four-year deal carrying a $1.15 million annual cap hit. Kulikov was initially drafted by the Panthers in 2009 before getting traded to the Buffalo Sabres in 2016. The 33-year-old played for seven different teams before signing with Florida again ahead of last season and now has a chance to spend the rest of his career here.
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“We’re trying to get guys to want to be here, and he’s all in, 100 percent,” Zito said. “He has a reasonable number and I suspect he could have had a better financial picture somewhere else and he’s like ‘I’m all in, I want to stay.’ And it’s really priceless. And to have a commitment from a guy like that with everything that he leaves out on the ice, it’s encouraging.”
On Monday, Florida plugged holes on the fourth line created by the losses of Stenlund and Lomberg with AJ Greer, Tomas Nosek and Jesper Boqvist. Greer signed a two-year deal carrying an $850,000 annual cap hit while Nosek is here on a one-year deal worth $775,000 and Boqvist also signed a one-year deal. On Tuesday, the Panthers added forward MacKenzie Entwistleon a one-year, two-way contract.
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The Panthers also agreed to terms with goaltender Chris Driedgeron a one-year contract. Driedger will compete with Spencer Knight to be Sergei Bobrovsky’s back-up next season.
Zito has decent cap space to fill in the rest of the holes on the roster. That includes re-signing restricted free agent Anton Lundell, who is due for a raise after putting up a five-assist showing in the Stanley Cup Final.
“What we want to do is keep going and keep evolving, right?” he said. “Guys get paid and everybody knows, just look at Tampa (which just lost star Steven Stamkos). You do well, you get paid and then you can’t keep everybody. Guys move on, so we’re trying to get other people in here who can contribute who are good people and good team guys. So, AJ Greer and Tomas Nosek fit in, they have flexibility, they have a little grit, hockey sense, they can play a lot of different roles and that’s what we’re trying to do to grow here.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida Panthers lose several key pieces of Stanley Cup championship roster to free agency
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