SUNRISE — As the glow from the Panthers’ Stanley Cup title continues to shine and players celebrate around South Florida, there are big questions on the horizon for the team’s future.
The biggest question for Florida entering the offseason is whether or not the team will keep leading goal-scorer Sam Reinhart, who scored the go-ahead goal in Monday’s Game 7 victory.
“I don’t want to leave,” Reinhart reportedly told media on the ice following the championship. “I want to be here.”
After signing autographs at Dick’s Sporting Goods at the Sawgrass Mall on Thursday evening, Reinhart declined to say whether he had spoken to Panthers general manager Bill Zito about a new contract.
“I’m not going to get into too many details,” Reinhart said.
However, he did say that the celebrations following the Stanley Cup would likely play a role in his decision-making.
“Absolutely,” Reinhart said, “this is unbelievable. So we’ll see what happens. But I certainly love it here.”
Said teammate Matthew Tkachuk on Thursday: “(Reinhart) knows how I feel about him and how I would love to play with him for the rest of my career, but at the end of the day, I hope he gets as much money as he possibly can, whether it’s from us or somebody else, because he deserves it. (He) was incredibly huge for us.”
Reinhart is not the only impending free agent from the Panthers’ championship team. Forwards Ryan Lomberg, Vladimir Tarasenko, Kyle Okposo, Kevin Stenlund, Nick Cousins and Steven Lorentz are unrestricted free agents, as are defensemen Brandon Mountour, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Dmitry Kulikov. Backup goaltender Anthony Stolarz is also an unrestricted free agent.
Forwards Anton Lundell and defenseman Josh Mahura are restricted free agents, which means the Panthers would have the right to match a contract offer from another team.
Florida has about $19.5 million in cap space entering the offseason, according to Spotrac.com. The free agency period begins Monday.
The Panthers will certainly have some roster turnover this offseason, but will be able to keep most of the championship core intact. Stars Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk are under contract through the 2029-30 season. Defenseman Gustav Forsling is under contract until 2032. Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky’s contract runs through 2025-26.
Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad are both unrestricted free agents after next season. To clear cap space, the Panthers could make a trade, and there are multiple reports that Ekblad, the Panthers’ No. 1 pick in 2014 and the player with the second-most games played in franchise history, is being shopped for a trade.
Tkachuk is with the team for the long haul, so he knows many players will come and go. But he also said he hopes many players from this championship squad will be back next year.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, you’re never going to have —with the way the cap is and teams are, the way our team is kind of run right now — we’re never going to have the same team year-to-year,” Tkachuk said. “But obviously, would love so much to keep as many guys together as possible because of the memories that were created this year. But at the end of the day, we’ve got a lot of guys that are up for contract, and I hope they go out and make as much money as they can, if possible.
“They deserve it. They’re Stanley Cup champions. They’re huge — absolutely, insanely huge — parts to winning, and they deserve everything they’re about to get, so I’m very happy for them.”
