Panthers youth must justify new contracts
If there is one thing that the Tom Rowe and the Florida Panthers brass proved this summer it is that they have an overwhelming confidence in their budding stars.
The club has been by and large the NHL's most active organization in the early months of the offseason. Besides inking pending free agent Keith Yandle to a seven-year deal and unrestricted free agents Jason Demers and James Reimer to five-year terms, the club has also locked up several of their young stars.
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Aaron Ekblad, Vincent Trocheck, and Reilly Smith have all signed lucrative long-term deals. The commitments have placed the franchise in steady hands looking towards the future, assuming their production continues to trend upwards.
The Panthers locked up Ekblad to a staggering eight-year contract on July 1, with the 20-year-old still to play out the final year of his entry-level deal.
Ekblad captured the Calder Trophy following his debut campaign during the 2014-15 season and followed it up with yet another stellar season, leading the team's defensive core with 15 goals and 36 points in 78 games, in addition to an admirable 52.85% Corsi-for during his two seasons.
All that aside, Ekblad will see his annual salary jump from $925,000 to $9 million during the 2017-18 season with a cap-hit of $7.5 million until the 2024-25 season. This is a lot for a player with just two years of professional experience under his belt.
Trocheck - like Ekblad - was locked up long-term as well, inking a six-year contract that will pay him an annual average of $4.75 million and max out at $6.26 million in the final year.
The 22-year-old is coming off what was by far his most productive season, hitting the 25-goal plateau in his first full-season in the NHL with a 53-point total. Prior to this past season he had never managed to dress in more than 50 games and never scored more than seven goals in a single campaign.
Now enter Smith, who also hit the 25-goal mark for the first time while hitting the 50-point mark for the second occasion. He also shined in the playoffs, leading the team in scoring with four goals and four assists in six games.
After playing just his first season with the franchise, the team extended Smith through to the 2021-22 season with a five-year deal that will kick-in in 2017-18 with an average of $5 million per season.
Keep in mind that Jonathan Huberdeau will be a restricted free agent at the conclusion of next season and has fared better statistically than Smith and an equal if not greater contract is likely coming down the pipeline for him as well.
Without factoring in Huberdeau and Nick Bjugstad - who is signed until the 2020-2021 season with a cap-hit of $4.1 million - the Panthers will have $17.25 committed to three guys with just over seven years of NHL experience collectively. The team also sits with over $59 million combined for the 2017-18 season with 10 players set to become restricted or unrestricted free agents.
That being said, all three are under the age of 25 and are coming off career-years. During the team's recent postseason run, the trio played significant minutes - over 25 a night - including Trocheck who averaged 33 minutes of ice-time.
If the three - in addition to the rest of the young group of Panthers - can continue to improve and play significant roles with the club, Florida will undoubtedly have one of the league's strongest cores for the foreseeable future.
Rowe and company clearly have seen something in these young men that leads the club to believe they are worth the long-term investment, it is now up to the players themselves to ensure that these lucrative contracts are money well spent.
-Contract info courtesy of General Fanager