LAS VEGAS – The Florida Panthers are optimistic about being able to re-sign forward Sam Reinhart, but general manager Bill Zito said he’s not sure if they have the space under the NHL salary cap to keep both Reinhart and defenseman Brandon Montour.
Reinhart and Montour are among 11 players for the Panthers slated to become unrestricted free agents at noon ET on Monday, a week after they defeated the Edmonton Oilers 2-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final to win their first championship.
“We’ll do our thing and what happens, happens,” Zito said before the first round of the 2024 Upper Deck NHL Draft at Sphere on Friday. “So, we have a real solid core, I think, and I’m hopeful we can keep as many guys as want to be there and keep going.”
That includes Reinhart. The 28-year-old had NHL career highs with 94 points and 57 goals in 82 regular-season games last season, ranking second in the NHL in goals behind Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs (69). He led the NHL with 27 power-play goals and was tied for second with 11 game-winning goals.
Reinhart had 16 points (10 goals, six assists) in 24 Stanley Cup Playoff games to help the Panthers win the Cup, including the winning goal in Game 7 against the Oilers.
“I won’t say anything other than we really hope to have him back and we’re trying to keep as many of the guys as we possibly can,” Zito said. “So, I’m optimistic and we’ll see.”
Zito didn’t say the same about Montour, though. The 30-year-old had 33 points (eight goals, 25 assists) and led Florida in averaging 23:27 in ice time in 66 regular-season games after missing the first 16 games while recovering from off-season shoulder surgery. Montour had 11 points (three goals, eight assists) and averaged 22:40 in ice time in 24 playoff games.
Zito said “there’s a way” the Panthers can keep Reinhart and Montour, but didn’t know if it will work out.
“I’m also appreciative of the fact that guys do well, and guys deserve to be paid and guys deserve bigger and better opportunities,” he said.
The Panthers’ list of potential unrestricted free agents also includes forwards Vladimir Tarasenko, Nick Cousins, Ryan Lomberg, Steven Lorentz, Kyle Okposo, Kevin Stenlund, defensemen Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Dmitry Kulikov and backup goalie Anthony Stolarz.
Zito hopes to keep as much of the Cup-winning roster together as possible, but acknowledged he had limited space under the $88 million cap for next season.
“We’re going to spend to the cap,” he said. “I’m going to spend it all, so you want this, and I don’t have it, I can’t manufacture it. It’s frustrating, it’s harder, perhaps, but there’s really nothing you can do.”
Florida will likely be quiet at the start of the draft, which also includes Rounds 2-7 on Saturday (11 a.m. ET; ESPN+, NHLN, SN, TVAS). The Panthers don’t have a pick in the first two rounds after trading their first-round pick (No. 32) to the Philadelphia Flyers as part of the deal for forward Claude Giroux in 2022 and their second-round pick (No. 65) to the Arizona Coyotes (now Utah Hockey Club) in 2021.
After that, management will return home for the team’s championship parade in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday before doing business on the UFA market on Monday. Zito said the days have been “crazy” since the Panthers won the Cup on Monday.
“I made a joke to someone that I felt like a wedding planner where you’re just trying to make sure whatever it is that happens next is as good as it can be for the players so they can really enjoy it and putting out fires that you haven’t anticipated even existing,” he said. “It’s been a busy week. It’s such a short window to try to get guys signed and then prepare for free agency.”
Although Zito has been too busy to follow everything the Panthers have done in celebrating with the Cup on social media, he’s seen a small part of it.
“It’s really fun and it’s neat to see the Cup in these new environments and the power that it has where in South Florida, in Broward County people are losing their marbles because it’s the first time they’ve seen it and it’s so beautiful and majestic and it has that energy,” he said. “It’s just a hunk of silver, but somehow it isn’t. That’s really been fun. That’s really been neat.
“We had a coaches’ dinner for a couple hours. I think the players napped. And we're on the [Florida Intracoastal Waterway] and the boats started coming and they knew. They were circling back and they’re on the radio and then all the sudden there was a boat parade coming through. In the moment, it was really neat. It was a special thing.”
