Florida Panthers Sign Jonathan Huberdeau To Extension
The Florida Panthers continue to do an amazing job of navigating through the salary cap in order to get their core players locked up for the future.
Huberdeau, 23, enjoyed a career year in 2015, registering highs in both goals (20) and points (59), while playing on the line with Aleksander Barkov and Jaromir Jagr that was critical in the Panthers’ push to winning the Atlantic division.
But since being reuniting with his junior hockey coach, Gerard Gallant, Huberdeau has begun to find his game that allowed him to become the third overall pick. In 155 games under Gallant, Huberdeau has tallied 113 points (35 G, 78 A). Analytically, among all forwards who played at least 1,000 minutes at even strength, Huberdeau posted the seventh and tenth best marks in A/60 and P/60, respectively.
If the cap hit seems eerily familiar, it should, as that is about the same amount that the team freed up when they were able to unload Dave Bolland’s contract to the Arizona Coyotes. Coming full circle, the Panthers basically traded first round pick Lawson Crouse for six more years of Huberdeau. Looking at it now, with Crouse yet to prove himself, it looks like a deal well worth it.
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With Huberdeau’s new deal, the Panthers now have ten players that are under contract for at least the next five years, and only Roberto Luongo is over the age of 30. Six of those ten players, are 25 years old or younger.
Time after time, the Panthers’ front office continues to booster the fact that their organization has one of the brightest futures in the league, but also has the talent to compete in the present.
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