Navigating the Salary Cap is probably one of the more important tasks for any general manager to have. Teams that can avert 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 that don’t see struggles and front office changes.
PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2017-18 season. This will focus more on those players who are integral parts of the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.
Florida Panthers
Current Cap Hit: $64,114,999 (under the $75MM Upper Limit)
Entry-Level Contracts
F Henrik Haapala (Two years remaining, $925K)
F Denis Malgin (Two years remaining, $690K)
D Michael Matheson (One year remaining, $925K)
F Jared McCann (One year remaining, $894K)
Up front, the Panthers will be counting on Haapala, who led the Finnish SM-liiga in scoring in 2016-17, to help fill some of the void left by some of their departures up front (including leading goal getter Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith, and Jaromir Jagr). He’s undersized at just 5’9 but with their winger depth, a top-six role isn’t out of the question. Malgin surprised many by making the team out of training camp last season but saw his role reduced as the season progressed. He should make a run at a bottom-six roster spot as should McCann, who enters his second season with the team after being acquired for defenseman Erik Gudbranson last summer.
Defensively, Matheson has quickly blossomed into a core player. He logged over 21 minutes per game last year and should come in around that amount again this coming season. He also has impressed at the past two World Championships with Team Canada. With those in mind, he’s going to be in line for a big raise come 2018-19 and is a prime extension candidate before then.
Potential Bonuses
Haapala: $450K
McCann: $212.5K
Total: $662.5K
One Year Remaining, Non-Entry-Level
D Alex Petrovic ($1.85MM, RFA)
F Colton Sceviour ($950K, UFA)
F Radim Vrbata ($2.5MM plus $1.25MM in bonuses, UFA)
Vrbata parlayed a strong showing with Arizona last season into a richer deal with Florida where he will have a prominent spot inside their top six given all of the players they lose. His bonuses are structured so that he should hit at least $1MM of them ($250K for each of 10, 15, and 20 goals plus $250K for 45 points) while he’ll earn another $250K if they make the playoffs. Sceviour fit in pretty well in his first season with the Panthers as a bottom-six forward who contributed the odd goal here and there. He’s not going to make or break their fortunes and if he was to get an extension, it should come in close to his current contract.
Petrovic signed his current deal at the end of June, avoiding the possibility of going through arbitration. He’s coming off an injury-shortened season where he missed 33 games due to a lower body injury which slowed up his progression. If he can stay healthy and potentially land a spot in their top four on the back end, he may be in line for a long-term contract next summer.
Two Years Remaining
F Micheal Haley ($825K, UFA)
F Derek MacKenzie ($1.375MM, UFA)
MacKenzie is on a 35-plus contract but it shouldn’t be too much of a risk. He has fit in well as a fourth line center and penalty killer. By the time his contract expires, he’ll be 38 and will be approaching retirement. Haley has bounced around on two-way deals in recent years but after holding his own in 58 games with the Sharks last season, he landed this one-way contract that should give him a spot as the 12th/13th forward.
Three Years Remaining
F Evgeni Dadonov ($4MM, UFA)
D Mark Pysyk ($2.733MM, UFA)
Clearly, GM Dale Tallon is a full believer that Dadonov’s offensive progression shown in recent years with SKA St. Petersburg will translate into NHL success in his second go-around. Their commitment to him demonstrates that they believe he can play a top six role right away. He’s one of the riskier signings of the summer but if he can produce, he could become one of the better bargains as well.
Pysyk fit in nicely with the Panthers in his first season with the team after being acquired from Buffalo at the 2016 draft. He’s a steady fourth or fifth blueliner with a cap hit that looks a whole lot better if he can handle the former role on a regular basis moving forward.
Four Or More Years Remaining
F Aleksander Barkov ($5.9MM through 2021-22)
F Nick Bjugstad ($4.1MM through 2020-21)
D Jason Demers ($4.5MM through 2020-21)
D Aaron Ekblad ($7.5MM through 2024-25)
F Jonathan Huberdeau ($5.9MM through 2022-23)
G Roberto Luongo ($4.533MM through 2021-22)
G James Reimer ($3.4MM through 2020-21)
F Vincent Trocheck ($4.75MM through 2022-23)
D Keith Yandle ($6.35MM through 2022-23)
Up front, there’s a case to be made that most of the players are on value deals. Barkov, when healthy, has proven that he’s a capable top center. However, he has dealt with injury trouble in each of his four NHL seasons and has only reached the 70-game mark once so far. Huberdeau missed most of last year with an Achilles injury but played quite well when he returned and has established himself as a legitimate front liner. Meanwhile, Trocheck led the team in scoring last season and is one of the more underrated centers in the league.
Bjugstad’s situation is a little more interesting, however. He signed his contract in the middle of a career year that saw him pot 24 goals and 43 points. His offense has tailed off since then (he had just 14 points in 54 games in 2016-17) and now sits third on their depth chart at center. His contract is somewhat of a premium for that type of role and with the reports that the Panthers are on a tighter budget, he’s someone that they could look to move at some point over the next year or so.
Defensively, Ekblad’s contract was somewhat of a controversial one at the time considering he had only played two years with Florida before landing it. The fact he’s coming off a down 2016-17 season and a concussion doesn’t help either. He’ll be given every opportunity to bounce back, however. Yandle won’t win many over with his defensive zone play but is still one of the better puck-movers from the back end and is consistently above average in his point production. As for Demers, there has been some speculation that he could be available, in part due to their budgetary restraints. His contract is a bit on the higher end for a second pairing player but he has been fairly steady in that role for several years now which makes him a safer buy if other teams are interested. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him move over the next year or so either.
Luongo is entering the final year of his contract that pays a salary commensurate with a starting goaltender. After that, his pay starts to go down fairly quickly which will lead to speculation about him retiring. If/when that happens, Florida will be hit with a salary cap recapture penalty, the amount of which will vary depending on the year he hangs them up. With that in mind, they went out and added Reimer to give them some insurance for when Luongo retires or gets hurt. In the short-term, Reimer is one of the highest-paid backups in the league but this signing was made with the longer-term in mind.
Buyouts
F Jussi Jokinen ($1.33MM through 2018-19)
Still To Sign
No remaining RFAs although it wouldn’t be surprising to see them shop for some scoring depth up front
Best Value: Barkov (when healthy)
Worst Value: Bjugstad
Looking Ahead
Florida has plenty of cap room to work with although their budgetary restrictions will come into play. They don’t have many expiring contracts that will be due major raises (Matheson is the only one that comes to mind) so their short-term flexibility should be intact for at least a little while.
A few years from now, that should change. They already have nearly $35MM committed to just six players for 2021-22 and unless the CBA swings a higher percentage of revenues to the salary cap (which doesn’t seem like a likely scenario at this point), there’s a good chance that they won’t have the flexibility to really add another core player or two. That said, a lot can change between now and then so their future situation shouldn’t be too much of a concern for now.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.