11/26: The Panthers have officially announced the new deal, confirming a two-year pact with Lomberg. In the team’s release, GM Bill Zito stated his appreciation for the forward’s hard-working brand of hockey: “Ryan has brought physicality and contagious energy to our lineup. We are excited to announce that he will continue to be a part of the Panthers organization for years to come.”
11/25: Ryan Lomberg has been a capable depth player in his two seasons with the Panthers and the team clearly likes what he has provided as CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that they’ve signed the winger to a two-year contract extension. The deal is worth $775K in 2022-23 and $825K in 2023-24 for an AAV of $800K, a small raise on his current $725K cap hit.
Lomberg signed with Florida as an unrestricted free agent back in 2020 after spending the first five years of his professional career with Calgary. He didn’t see any NHL action in his final year in the Flames organization which allowed the 27-year-old to become a Group VI unrestricted free agent.
Since joining the Panthers, Lomberg has become more of a regular player, suiting up in 34 games last season where he tallied two goals and two assists in 34 games along with a team-high 67 penalty minutes. This season, he has played in ten contests, picking up a goal and two assists while logging 10:38 per game, a career-high in ATOI.
With the signing, Florida now has just under $78MM in commitments for next season to just 16 players, per CapFriendly. With the cap only expected to go up by $1MM next season to $82.5MM, Florida is going to be facing a situation where they will need to round out their roster with minimum-salary players and will likely need to move someone out to free up enough money to re-sign some of their own pending free agents. Accordingly, getting a regular player in Lomberg locked up for just under the minimum is a nice piece of business for GM Bill Zito.
Very good , this guy deserves this and plays with good intensity