Speaking to The Athletic last month, Florida Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito was careful in answering a question about three key players entering the final years of their respective contracts.
Yes, he was hoping to eventually extend Sam Bennett, Carter Verhaeghe and Aaron Ekblad. But he also knew it wouldn’t be easy.
“Contract negotiations between and among individual players are unique and it seems that over time, they’re all a little bit different,” Zito said on Sept. 18. “We will absolutely work with each player in the right time frame and the right manner for him with the hopes of keeping all the guys.
“And being mindful of what some people might perceive as time frames of what you have may not apply to somebody else. So we’ll pursue it individually in the appropriate manner and certainly those three guys are all guys we want to keep and are all guys with whom we have solid communication.”
All three players know that a contract signed in South Florida won’t be as lucrative as one that could await on July 1. But the chance to keep winning championships is alluring. Not to mention no state income tax.
“We’re trying to get the pieces in the puzzle and keep all the pieces,” Zito said in that Sept. 18 interview. “We have a plan that we think works. … A plan that gets everybody taken care of.
“But I’ve said this so many times and I think I can say it with some degree of credibility having worked on the other side (as an agent) for so long, you have to respect people’s thought processes and you have to respect their wishes. And because they don’t agree with you and because they decide they’re not prepared to do something, it doesn’t make them a bad guy or a bad teammate. It’s just how they feel, and they’ve earned it.”
Verhaeghe was first, signing an eight-year extension Tuesday night at a $7 million average annual value.
By any measure, that’s a very reasonable deal for a 35- to 40-goal scorer in the prime of his career. He would have been looking at $8 million per year or more July 1 if he had hit the open market.
Reached Wednesday morning after his team’s season-opening win over the Boston Bruins, Zito said the Verhaeghe signing was important for a variety of reasons.
“There’s so many levels to it,” Zito said. “There’s his production on the ice. There’s his contribution to the team. That can’t be overstated.
“He kind of embodies what we’ve started to build here. Come in, do your best, achieve and keep trying to get better. And I think that’s one thing that continues to be underappreciated, is Carter’s work ethic and how badly he wants to improve. The guy scores 40 goals and comes in at the end of the year and says, ‘What can I do better?’ Just a good person, a good teammate. We’re lucky to be able to add to the core and keep guys around.”
Verhaeghe was one of Zito’s first wave of moves after becoming Panthers GM in the fall of 2020, signing a two-year deal for $1 million per season as an unrestricted free agent. Yeah, that worked out OK.
That turned into a three-year, $12.5 million extension for a player who hadn’t been able to find a long-term home in previous stops with the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Islanders and Tampa Bay Lightning organizations. And now Tuesday’s $56 million extension, a contract that reflects the player’s continued ascension.
But again, even with that big raise, Verhaeghe clearly left money on the table, which has been a trend with the core players who have chosen to commit long-term to the Cup champions.
“To a man, when we’ve gone through these processes, it started with Sasha (Aleksander Barkov), through Chucky (Matthew Tkachuk), Sam (Reinhart), it was about, ‘We want to be in a place where we can win,’” Zito said. “Hopefully we can continue to have an environment where we all continue to get better and we do have a chance to win.”
Where that leaves Bennett and Ekblad now, we shall see. Zito will continue to talk to both camps throughout the season to see if there’s a fit. But just like Reinhart played out his contract last year before signing at the 11th hour, the Panthers don’t believe it will be a distraction if Bennett and Ekblad play out their deals.
“Today is about Carter,” Zito said. “We’ll see what happens there.”
This is me saying it, not Zito, but what’s clear is that of course they want to keep Bennett — a heart-and-soul core guy — and Ekblad, a team leader who has spent his entire career there. But if I’m reading between the lines, there’s work to be done to get the Panthers-type discounts that would get those extensions done.
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
