The Florida Panthers locked up center Anton Lundell for the next six years by coming to terms with the 22-year-old on a new $30 million contract yesterday.
He produced 13 goals and 22 assists in 78 games for the Panthers this past regular season, and his numbers were even better in the playoffs as he finished with 17 points (fourth-best on the team) in 24 games as the Panthers claimed its first-ever Stanley Cup.
Lundell was Florida’s first round selection (12th overall) in the 2020 NHL Draft. After spending one more year in Finland’s Liiga with HIFK, he signed his entry-level contract on June 7, 2021. He made the club that fall and has played a total of 216 regular season games since then, amassing a total 43 goals and 69 assists.
He has appeared in 54 postseason games (28 points) over the past three seasons and has won two Prince of Wales trophies in addition to hockey’s biggest prize.
The Panthers have core pieces Lundell, captain Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Gustav Forsling all under contract through at least the 2029-30 campaign. Extensions for Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett are said to be in the works.
By bypassing a bridge deal with Lundell, which ate up most of the club’s remaining salary cap space, any chance the Cats had of bringing back Vladimir Tarasenko evaporated. Tarasenko decided to ink a two-year, $9.5 million deal with the Detroit Red Wings.
In another piece of Panthers-related free agency news, defenseman Josh Mahura signed a one-year, $775K contract with the Seattle Kraken. Mahura, who played in 30 regular season games in 2023-24, did not receive a qualifying offer from general manager Bill Zito and became an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
Speaking of the Kraken, hats off to the organization and new assistant coach Jessica Campbell, who will become the first woman to hold a full-time coaching position behind the bench of an NHL franchise. Nicely, nicely. We progress.
Happy Birthday, America!