The Florida Panthers have re-signed one of their restricted free agents, inking Alexander Petrovic to a one-year $1.95MM contract. GM Dale Tallon had this to say about his defenseman:
Alexander is a dependable young defenseman who adds size and physicality to our lineup. He plays the game with an edge and has grown into a strong shutdown defender. We look forward to Alexander taking the next step in his development with the Panthers and are pleased to have agreed to terms with him.
You could have guessed that Petrovic was close to a deal with the Panthers when he failed to file for arbitration yesterday. The 26-year old defenseman is betting on himself with a one-year deal, as he’ll now be an unrestricted free agent next summer and can’t sign an extension with the Panthers until January 1st, 2019. Whether the Panthers would even want to entertain a multi-year deal isn’t clear, especially after they dramatically cut Petrovic’s minutes this season. Averaging just under 15 per game, the 6’4″ Petrovic was sheltered from many tough defensive matchups and yet still only recorded 13 points on the season. Head coach Bob Boughner instead gave a huge number of the defensive starts to Mike Matheson and Mark Pysyk, while handing Petrovic the lightest zone-start load among any of his defenders.
That middling success for Petrovic always sparks debate and frustration for Panthers fans, given that they chose to protect him in the expansion draft while handing Jon Marchessault and Reilly Smith over to the Vegas Golden Knights. That’s not Petrovic’s fault in any way, but it still will hang over his head while playing in Florida. This could be his last chance to impress the team and bring about a multi-year offer, and he’ll have to perform better than in 2017-18 to do it.