The Florida Panthers have signed Jonathan Huberdeau to a six-year, $35.4 million contract extension on Tuesday reports Chris Johnston of Sportsnet.ca. Per Johnston, Huberdeau’s extension includes a modified no-trade clause starting in 2019-20 and becomes an eight-team no-trade clause in the contracts final season.
Jonathan Huberdeau has agreed to a $35.4M, six-year extension with #FlaPanthers. That's a $5.9M AAV.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) September 6, 2016
Extending Huberdeau keeps up with the Panthers offseason philosophy of signing young, homegrown talent in the organization to lengthy, yet reasonable, contract extensions.
[link_box id=”22277″ site_id=”17″ layout=”link-box-third” alignment=”alignright”]Huberdeau was drafted by Florida third overall in the 2011 Draft. He joined the team in 2012-13. Over the past two seasons, the Quebec native has recorded two 50+ point seasons, including a career-high 59 points in 2015-16. Huberdeau’s offensive production came with a relatively high 11.5 shooting percentage, so 15-20 goals is probably a safe bet, but the center’s a talented playmaker. The 23-year-old was given considerable offensive responsibility, playing a majority of his even strength minutes with Jaromir Jagr and Aleksander Barkov. The Panthers are buying up Huberdeau’s prime and hope his steady production remains consistent. It’s a nice gamble.
Comparatively, Florida paid the right price for Huberdeau. His cap comparables per General Fanager are Brandon Saad (six-year, $36 million), Jordan Eberle (six-year, $36 million) and Logan Couture (five-year, $30 million) – all of whom have performed around a similar points clip as the Panthers forward. Which isn’t to say Huberdeau is on the same level as those players, but it’s a reasonable deal for a point producer.
Locking up Huberdeau pushes the Panthers up against the cap, but assures another key building block is in the books long-term. General Fanager notes Florida now has $60.8 million in salaries committed to the 2017-18 roster and another $51.9 million committed until 2020-21. It’s a lot of cheddar to commit years in advance, but Panthers management has done an impressive job keeping homegrown talent.
Within the last year, Florida has locked up Aleksander Barkov to an identical five-year, $35.4 million deal, Vincent Trocheck to a six-year, $4.75 million deal, Reilly Smith to a five-year, $25 million deal and Aaron Ekblad to an eight-year, $60 million extension. That’s without mentioning Nick Bjugstad’s team-friendly six-year, $24.6 million signed in late 2014 and Roberto Luongo’s long-term deal. Add sizable commitments to Keith Yandle, Jason Demers and James Reimer this offseason and the Panthers have something really good going.
Florida is in win-now mode but continue to play things well when it comes to important core pieces. The contracts are all risks, but if any of them pay off like expected, the Panthers are going to have great players locked up to reasonable, long-term deals. There’s nothing not to like about what Florida has done. Establishing long-term continuity is going to serve the organization well. All of the contract extensions (not free agent signings or trades) have locked up players 25-and-younger. The Panthers have bought out prime seasons and ensured a stable future. Yes, the club has thrown around some serious money this offseason, but all the moves can be rationalized.
The Panthers have developed skilled players and held onto them by being proactive with their contracts. It’s a shrewd move which could ultimately pay huge dividends for the club. I’d bet in four years or so, we’ll look back at the contracts, like the one given to Huberdeau, and wonder how the Panthers managed to keep all the talents.
The answer is by being smart.
