It has been a remarkable season for Sam Reinhart and the Florida Panthers. Reinhart notched two goals within the previous game, hitting the 50-goal plateau for the primary time in his profession.
No one expected 40 and even 50 goals from Reinhart this season. He has been a perennial 20-goal scorer for his profession, having completed that feat seven times. The last two seasons saw Reinhart break the 30-goal mark, but no one expected this leap in goal scoring.
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Reinhart is about to change into an unrestricted free agent this summer, and he is predicted to get a pay raise.
He’s putting up profession numbers across the board for the Panthers. Again, it helps whenever you play with Aleksander Barkov. But Reinhart has come along since being drafted by the Buffalo Sabres second overall in 2014.
He was an excellent player for Buffalo, but he took strides after being traded to the Panthers in July 2021. As a part of the trade, the Panthers sent goalie prospect Devon Levi and a first-round pick within the 2022 NHL Draft.
Reinhart desires to remain with the Panthers because it is an excellent fit not just for him but additionally for the team. Not to say, general manager Bill Zito also desires to re-sign him. But it would come all the way down to cost.
Reinhart currently has a salary cap of $6.5 million. It will likely rise. Nevertheless, the Panthers have a salary cap hierarchy, with Barkov making $10 million and Matthew Tkachuk making $9.5 million; he’ll probably are available in somewhere around $8-$9 million. It helps that Florida has no state income tax.
NHL Rumors: Sam Reinhart desires to remain with the Florida Panthers
And with the season Reinhart is having, you’ve to think concerning the way he’s playing and the incontrovertible fact that he hit 50 goals or perhaps more, it would affect his contract negotiations. This was something TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger addressed on Toronto Radio on Monday.
“Well, it would, of course. But all along, and there must be a negotiation here, but all along we’ve said as Insiders that there was an actual strong connection between the 2 sides to get something done right. Like Reinhardt knows that, , the Florida Panthers don’t have a bottomless pit.
He also recognizes at this point of his profession, and he’s got a ton of hockey left yet in his profession, that the fit is admittedly good for him, and clearly, it’s good for the Panthers, and whenever you get to that place, and there’s an appreciation on each side level of importance to get something done. And also you got the luxurious of the Florida State Tax right, which helps quite a bit.
So yeah, there’s got to be negotiation, but I believe Billy Zito and the Florida Panthers recognize that on and off the ice, this guy’s a key piece. So I don’t think it’s going to be an enormous, huge issue.”
Again, Sam Reinhart is a critical piece to the Panthers offense, but for him to, stay he may need to take less money.”
