The contract
Florida Panthers sign right winger Sam Reinhart to an eight-year deal with an $8.625 million AAV.
There might be a team or two that has a better trio of top forwards than Florida, but none that garner better contract value than the Panthers. Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk were already on sweetheart deals earning less than their worth — now the Panthers can add Sam Reinhart to that list.
After scoring 57 goals and finishing fourth in Selke voting last season, Reinhart was due for a huge raise. We pegged his value similar to the deal William Nylander signed earlier this year: $11.5 million per year. Reinhart instead signed for $8.625 million for the next eight seasons, a valuation well below his current worth given expected cap growth. This is a steal.
Thank the Stanley Cup. Thank the beautiful locale. Thank the savvy front office. All three were huge factors in Reinhart coming in at a hometown discount. After the season he had it probably wouldn’t have been hard for him to net eight figures annually on the open market. Reinhart took a lot less to keep the band together and win in a beautiful city. Who can blame him? Florida is home.
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For the Panthers, the best thing to like about this deal is that they essentially got him to sign a contract as if his career year never happened.
We pegged his value at $8.8 million going into the year meaning there’s minimal risk at his current price tag. Even if last year was just a flash in the pan and he returns to being the exact same guy he was before the season, the deal is still perfectly fair.
Everything else is pure upside and while it’s not fair to expect him to repeat last season’s effort, it is fair to expect Reinhart to continue being among the league’s elite wingers. A plus-18 Net Rating certainly places him in the league’s upper echelon.
At this price tag, that’s a bargain.
Contract grade: A+
Fit grade: A+
(Photo: Derik Hamilton / The Associated Press)
