Salary Cap Deep Dive: Florida Panthers

Navigating the salary cap is one of the most important tasks for a front office.  Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful.  Those who don’t often see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation for the 2025-26 season.  This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL.  All cap figures are courtesy of PuckPedia.  We’re currently covering the Atlantic Division, next up are the Panthers.

Florida Panthers

Current Cap Hit: $103,050,261 (above the $95.5MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

None who are on the active roster on a full-time basis.

Signed Through 2025-26, Non-Entry-Level

D Uvis Balinskis ($850K, UFA)
G Sergei Bobrovsky ($10MM, UFA)
F A.J. Greer ($850K, UFA)
F Noah Gregor ($775K, UFA)
F Luke Kunin ($775K, UFA)
F Tomas Nosek ($775K, UFA)
D Jeff Petry ($775K, UFA)
F Mackie Samoskevich ($775K, RFA)
D Donovan Sebrango ($775K, RFA)
F Cole Schwindt ($825K, UFA)
G Daniil Tarasov ($1.05MM, UFA)

Potential Bonuses
Petry: $250K

Greer has found a nice role in Florida, setting a career high offensively last season while more than doubling his career high in hits as well.  This season, he’s off to an even better start.  Given his role and Florida’s top-heavy salary structure though, they may not be able to afford to keep him if his price tag pushes towards the $1.5MM mark.  Schwindt was a waiver claim from Vegas last month but played sparingly (before being injured earlier this month) after being in and out of the lineup last season.  Unless his role changes considerably, he’s probably going to be capped at the league minimum on his next deal.  Realistically, the same can be said for any of Nosek, Kunin, and Gregor.

However, Samoskevich is a much different situation.  He accepted a one-way deal this past summer, taking less than his qualifying offer to get the guaranteed salary.  In doing so, he’s setting himself up to have salary arbitration rights next summer.  If he plays the middle-six role he currently has all season and beats his 31 points from a year ago, he should easily triple this price tag at a minimum; quadrupling it isn’t unrealistic if he has a big second half.

Balinskis performed well last season in his first full year on the third pairing and is being deployed similarly in the early going this year.  As is the case with Greer, he’d need to stay around the minimum to stay in Florida while his market value might be more in the $1.5MM range.

Petry had a tough year with Detroit last season which certainly hurt his market.  At 37, he’s best served as a third pairing or depth defender and this price tag reflects that.  He has four $50K bonuses tied to games played that are achievable if he stays healthy while the other $50K is dependent on a Stanley Cup victory.  There’s a good chance he stays near the minimum if he keeps playing beyond this season.  Sebrango was claimed off waivers with Florida dealing with injuries.  He’s just looking to get established as an NHL regular at this point but his arbitration eligibility could work against him if Florida thinks that filing for a hearing could push him into seven figures, a risk they might not want to take as he should also stay at the minimum.

There were times in this contract that Bobrovsky’s contract looked like a complete anchor on the books.  However, he has become a bit more consistent in recent years and when Florida traded Spencer Knight at the trade deadline last season, it suggested that their plan is to stick with Bobrovsky beyond this deal as they don’t have anyone else in their system that’s ready.  He’ll be entering his age-38 season in 2026-27 so a long-term deal isn’t likely.  However, a two-year pact could be doable, one that might land closer to half this amount.  Alternatively, if they were to go with a one-year offer, he’d be eligible for performance incentives which could give Florida some shorter-term wiggle room next season.

Tarasov had a rough year in Columbus, ultimately finishing as the third-string goaltender and getting moved for cheap in the summer.  If he can re-establish himself to the level he was at in 2023-24, he could make a case to land closer to $1.75MM or so on his next contract although that’s a price tag Florida likely can’t afford.

Signed Through 2026-27

F Jesper Boqvist ($1.5MM, UFA)
F Eetu Luostarinen ($3MM, UFA)
F Evan Rodrigues ($3MM, UFA)

Free agency hasn’t been kind to Rodrigues which helped explain why he signed a four-year deal for this price tag, a contract that had a chance to become team-friendly pretty quickly.  So far, so good on that front.  As a player who consistently passes 30 points and can play down the middle in a pinch, he should be able to land something in the $4MM range on his next contract.

Luostarinen has been a player who has produced a point total in the 20s in three of the last four seasons.  The production he had last playoffs (19 points in 23 games) was the outlier but for the most part, he has been a third liner making third-line money.  With his production generally being more limited, he might not be able to land as much as Rodrigues next time out.  Boqvist signed this deal near the trade deadline last season and he might have done better than he would have on the open market where he didn’t have a lot of luck in 2024.  As a fourth liner with a bit of versatility, his value should hover somewhere around this mark two years from now.

Signed Through 2027-28

F Jonah Gadjovich ($775K in 2025-26, $905K after)
D Dmitry Kulikov ($1.15MM, UFA)

Gadjovich hasn’t played a lot since joining Florida in 2023 but he has been a serviceable fourth liner who fits the physical style they want to play.  As a 13th forward in an ideal situation, keeping him at just over the minimum salary starting next season isn’t a bad deal for them.

The fact Kulikov received a four-year deal last summer was a surprise but he also left a fair bit of money on the table had he opted to go with shorter-term contracts.  The end result is that he gets a bit of security while the Panthers get a bargain deal for someone who, when healthy (which he currently isn’t), is still a pretty dependable third-pairing defenseman at this point.

Signed Through 2028-29

None

Signed Through 2029-30 Or Longer

F Aleksander Barkov ($10MM through 2029-30)
F Sam Bennett ($8MM through 2032-33)
D Aaron Ekblad ($6.1MM through 2032-33)
D Gustav Forsling ($5.75MM through 2031-32)
D Seth Jones ($7MM through 2029-30)*
F Anton Lundell ($5MM through 2029-30)
F Brad Marchand ($5.25MM through 2030-31)
D Niko Mikkola ($2.5MM in 2025-26, $5MM from 2026-27 through 2033-34)
F Sam Reinhart ($8.625MM through 2031-32)
F Matthew Tkachuk ($9.5MM through 2029-30)
F Carter Verhaeghe ($7MM through 2032-33)

*-Chicago is retaining an additional $2.5MM per season on Jones’ contract.

The days of Barkov being viewed as the NHL’s most underrated player have come and gone but he’s still one of the more underappreciated top-line centers in the league.  A legitimate top two-way player, he has also chipped in with more than a point per game in five straight seasons.  If he were on the open market following a normal year, he’d be making a few million more per season, especially as market value for players continues to escalate in this new cap era.  Of course, it’s worth noting that this is not a normal year.  A long-term knee injury has him on LTIR with the best-case scenario being a late-playoff return.  Assuming he can bounce back from that next season, Barkov should still be a bargain.

Florida GM Bill Zito made a bold move to get Tkachuk, sending two key contributors to Calgary to get him (Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar), then signed him to this contract, a pricey one at the time.  It has worked out quite well as he has found another level with the Panthers, playing an instrumental role in their Stanley Cup titles.  With how the top winger market has moved in recent years, this deal is several million below market value already.  Reinhart followed up his career year with another year of more than a point per game last season and as long as he can stay near there (even if he doesn’t approach 57 goals again), this deal should hold up just fine for the.

With the playoff run Bennett had the last two seasons, someone was going to pay a big price to get him.  The price Florida paid is likely lower than what he would have gotten in free agency.  But, relative to his point production, it’s still a sizable overpayment.  But if he can keep playing at his postseason level in the playoffs for them, they’ll be happy with how the contract works out.  If that doesn’t happen, this will be a problematic deal for them.  Verhaeghe has been one of the NHL’s better bargains for several years now and even with this deal, if he stays in the 55-60-point range, it should age well, even if the contract isn’t the bargain it once was.

Considering Marchand is already 37, few would have expected a six-year contract but that’s what he was able to get with him taking a lower cap hit in return.  For now, he’s still a top-six forward and his price tag for that role is actually team-friendly for the time being.  The back few years could be an issue though as his age and playing style are likely to catch up to him.  Lundell is the one player at the other end of the spectrum; instead of being a veteran sticking around in his UFA years, Lundell signed this after his entry-level pact, only adding two years of team control.  His offense is still developing (getting a bigger role this season in Barkov’s absence will help there) but if he settles in as ‘Barkov-lite’ as some have suggested, this is going to be yet another club-friendly pact for a while.

Zito made a big splash near the trade deadline last season with the addition of Jones, a top-pairing all-situations player who had come under fire for some struggles in Chicago.  But counted on a bit less with the Panthers, he has settled in nicely and is effectively just making number two money for the portion Florida is paying.  That should give them plenty of value for a while.  The thought when Jones was acquired was that he might ultimately replace Ekblad but the former number one pick took a pay cut to stick around.  There’s some risk with the contract given the heavy workload he’s had in his career and some recent significant injuries so the final couple of years could be an issue.  But this is second-pairing money and he’s still holding his own in a top-pairing role.  They’ll be happy with his contract for a while.

Forsling will go down as one of the top waiver claims in recent memory, going from a depth piece in his previous stops to a legitimate top-four player who can chip in offensively and log big minutes.  This is already looking like a team-friendly pact with more than a half-decade to go; it should only get better value-wise from here.  Mikkola has fit in well since joining the Panthers in 2023 and has taken on a bigger role since then, making his current contract quite the bargain.  The new one looks a little on the high side now for someone who is a fourth defender but that should change as the market shifts over the next few years and that price point becomes more normal for someone in that role.

Buyouts

None

Retained Salary Transactions

None

Carryover Bonus Overage Penalty

None

Best Value: (non-entry-level) Samoskevich
Worst Value: Bennett

Looking Ahead

The biggest decision that Florida has to make on the cap front this season involves Barkov.  If it’s deemed that he won’t be able to play in the playoffs, he can go on season-ending LTIR, giving them an additional $6.2MM in their LTIR pool, plenty of space to get back to compliance when everyone else returns and add a piece or two.  If they don’t want to do that and keep him eligible for a possible late-playoff return, they’ll need to move out money at some point this season and be a money-in, money-out team after that.

At the moment, Florida has around $17MM in space for 2026-27 with around half a dozen players to sign, including a goalie tandem that could push to make around half of that.  That wouldn’t leave much flexibility to add but the core would be intact for another year.  That sentence should apply for a few more years, even when they already have more than $67MM committed for 2029-30.  A big chunk of their roster should be in a Panthers uniform for the long haul, mostly on contracts that should age relatively well.

Photos courtesy of Geoff Burke and Perry Nelson-Imagn Images.