The Florida Panthers have won back-to-back Stanley Cup titles and have been to the Final three years in a row.
If that doesn’t say start of a dynasty, general manager Bill Zito’s recent magic might have positioned the team for another run and more.
Zito had expressed confidence that he could sell his three key pending unrestricted free agents on a winning culture and get Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad and Brad Marchand re-signed.
Playoff MVP Bennett was first, agreeing to an eight-year, $64 million extension that was announced before the NHL draft. Then the team announced an eight-year deal for top-pairing defenseman and 2014 No. 1 overall pick Ekblad worth a reported $6.1 million a year on June 30. And reports emerged later in the day that Marchand, who scored 10 playoff goals after arriving in a trade, would be getting a six-year deal worth a little more than $5 million a year. His contract will run until he’s 43.
Zito vowed that the team would spend to the salary cap and it will. And all three are taking under-market contracts to stick around. Also important, they aren’t joining the Panthers’ rivals.
The Panthers now have Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Bennett, Carter Verhaeghe, Marchand, Anton Lundell, Seth Jones, Ekblad and Gustav Forsling signed through at least 2030.
Zito also made a recent trade for goaltender Daniil Tarasov, 26, who will get to learn under veteran Sergei Bobrovsky and possibly be the Panthers’ No. 1 goalie of the future.
The Panthers are like a family. Witness how captain Barkov made sure that all the first-time Stanley Cup winners got to lift the Cup before last year’s winners did.
That camaraderie is a key selling point. So is winning. And the Panthers have put themselves in position to do more.
