It’s almost time for the 2025 NHL Free Agency period to open.
The back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers’ front office has been hard at work trying to keep as much of their team intact as possible.
With a few moves already made, here’s an outlook on what’s been done and what could come before the market opens on July 1.
Sam Bennett Ain’t Leaving
Florida’s No. 1 priority entering the offseason was to lock up Conn Smythe winner Sam Bennett.
They were able to do that ahead of July 1.
Bennett and the Panthers put pen to paper on Saturday, keeping him in South Florida with an eight-year, $64M contract extension.
If the 29-year-old did get to market, he would have had numerous suitors lining up to make pitches. But as he made clear at the Miami night club E11VEN during the team’s Stanley Cup celebration, he “ain’t f**king leaving.”
“I knew that I wanted to be here and I was pretty confident that it was going to get done,” Bennett said following his extension. “Obviously you never know, things can change. It had to be the right fit for both me and the team. We obviously came to that solution.”
He added: “Being in South Florida has just completely changed my life. I love playing hockey there, I love living there. I love the team, the staff, the owners, just everything about it is really the dream situation. I couldn’t pass up the chance to be back here for another eight years.”
The past 13 months have been life changing for Bennet. In that span he’s won two Stanley Cups, a Conn Smythe, a 4 Nations gold medal with Canada and now he’s a whole lot richer.
“I feel like I still haven’t really taken a step back, and looked at it and appreciated how amazing this year has been,” Bennett said. “I’m really just grateful. It’s been everything I’ve always dreamed of, the last year of hockey. If you would have asked me that five years ago, I would have been thrilled with just a little bit of success. I haven’t had time to really process how amazing this year has been, but it’s incredible and I truly believe that we’re not done yet.”
More Than Likely Departures
In recent years, if you wanted to rejuvenate your career, go to Florida.
Between guys still with the team: Carter Verhaeghe, Gustav Forsling, Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, or players who received multi-year extensions elsewhere after successful tenures with the Panthers: Brandon Montour, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Anthony Stolarz, Ryan Lomberg; playing in South Florida — at least the past few seasons — has been good for the bank accounts.
Keeping that sentiment in mind, don’t be surprised to see defenseman Nate Schmidt become the latest Panther to receive a pay-bump, outside of Florida.
Schmidt, 33, signed a one-year, $800k deal with the Panthers last offseason after the Winnipeg Jets bought out the final year of his six-year, $35.7M deal.
A combination of a great postseason, where Schmidt posted 3 goals and 12 points in 23 games, plus a tight squeeze on Florida’s cap room, it’s likely that Schmidt will get way more money and term on the open market compared to what Florida could offer.
Florida acquiring 26-year-old goaltender Daniil Tarasov also means Vitek Vanecek’s time in Florida is done. Decisions on fourth-line centers Tomas Nosek and Nico Sturm — both UFA’s — also have to be made.
Can they keep Ekblad and Marchand?
As stated earlier, getting Sam Bennett locked up was the main priority for Bill Zito and his staff ahead of July 1.
Now the clock is ticking for priority No. 2 and No. 3: Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad.
Accounting for Bennett’s extension, Florida has $11M of projected cap space to work with, per PuckPedia. With that, they’ll need to sign Mackie Samoskevich and newly acquired goaltender Daniil Tarasov — both Restricted Free Agents — while also trying to keep at least one of Ekblad or Marchand (unrestricted free agents).
The Panthers want to keep both of their pending UFA’s, but there’s substantial haircuts taken on each player’s respective contracts, so it’s likely only one can stay.
“I have an idea,” Panthers GM Bill Zito said when asked about trying to re-sign the pair. “If what I think isn’t accurate, and it might not be, we have a Plan B and a Plan C. But my preference, and maybe I’m hoping, is that there’s enough for guys to want to stay to be a part of this and be treated fairly and be happy. And that’s the most important thing.”
Marchand turned 37 in May, but the 14-year NHL veteran proved age was just a number during the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He played an instrumental role in helping Florida win the Cup, scoring 10 goals and 20 points in 23 playoff games.
If a deal with Florida doesn’t get done before free agency opens on Tuesday, multiple teams, including the Toronto Maple Leafs, will make an attempt to lure Marchand over, according to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun.
A Marchand deal, regardless of where he goes, is likely to be in the ballpark of three to four years given his age.
Ekblad, who turns 30 in February, will likely demand a long-term deal in what should be the final near-max length contract of his career.
After being drafted by Florida first-overall in the 2014 NHL Draft, Ekblad holds nearly every Panthers’ defensemen record.
The six-foot-four blueliner hasn’t shied away from making it clear over the past few months that his preference is to stay in South Florida.
“I live and breathe for the Florida Panthers,” Ekblad said at Stanley Cup Final media day. “I bleed for the Florida Panthers. I’ve given my body and everything to this team. I want to keep doing it forever, for as long as they’ll let me keep coming to the rink.”
Despite his appeals to stay in Sunrise, the money to keep him just may not be there.
It’s a fairly weak free agency class for top-pair defenseman. If Ekblad were to hit the market, he’d be the top UFA defender available. A pay raise on his current contract that carried an AAV of $7.5M for eight years isn’t out of the question, if not expected.
Can Florida Move Salary?
Unless Bill Zito can pull something unexpected out of his hat — which he actually seems to do fairly often — there’s not many moves I can envision that would help clear money.
Say you need to open more space to sign both Ekblad and Marchand, Evan Rodrigues’ $3M AAV is the likely casualty that would need to be moved.
Does Florida want to move Rodrigues, who has played a role in them winning back-to-back Stanley Cups?
No.
Do I think they would pull the trigger on a trade if it meant keeping Marchand and Ekblad?
Yes.
Getting Rodrigues’ contract off the books would give Florida about $14M of money to spend on free agents. This scenario would make it more plausible in possibly keeping Ekblad and Marchand. But even then, both players would still need to take less money than they’d get if they were to hit free agency.
Justin Sourdif Flipped for Draft Capital
The NHL is a hard cap league with little money to spare.
Florida has done a great job at locking up its core; Sam Bennett is the latest example of that. On the flip side, there will be cap casualties — both big and small.
23-year-old forward Justin Sourdif, who is coming off a great year with the Calder Cup finalist Charlotte Checkers, ended up being one of those cap losses.
The Panthers sent Sourdif, their third-round pick (87th overall) in the 2020 NHL Draft, to the Washington Capitals for a second-round pick in 2026 and a sixth-round pick in 2027.
With just four NHL games under his belt, in need of a contract, and on the outside looking in to crack the Panthers’ roster, a trade was beneficial for both sides.
Florida got back more value than they used five years ago to draft Sourdif, while the youngster got a two-year, $1.65M deal with the Capitals and should get more playing opportunities in the nation’s capital than he would’ve with the Panthers.
