Unselfish Florida Panthers Once Again Build Elite Roster

“The best teams have chemistry. They communicate with each other and they sacrifice personal glory for the common goal.”
Dave DeBusschere

There are metaphorical windows in professional sports. A player's "prime" for example, the period in an athlete's career where they are at both physical and mental peaks. Still young enough to win with physical dominance or speed, while simultaneously possessing high intellect and situational experience.

One of the many jobs within the job of a professional sports general manager or team architect is to find the balance of enough players in their primes to create another opening.

The championship window.

In the NHL, and other salary cap sports, you can only afford so many elite players. The "Big 3" for the Miami Heat all took below market salaries to keep Udonis Haslem in his hometown, helping to bring back-to-back parades to Biscayne Boulevard. Tom Brady famously left money on the table throughout his tenure with the New England Patriots. This allowed the team to sign a great supporting cast along with a few start to build a dynasty.

The Florida Panthers and their organization, from owner Vinnie Viola and General Manager Bill Zito all the way down, has created a team first culture that would make their colleagues in Downtown Miami proud.

Contrarians may point out that the Panthers currently have the fifth highest payroll in the league per Puckpedia. Florida will pay their forward group 69.2M dollars next season, tops in the league.

Projected #FlaPanthers lineup after signing F Lars Eller. This 20-man lineup has average age of almost exactly 30 years old.https://t.co/crfKmxjXft
— NHL Rosters (@NHL_Rosters) July 2, 2026

Taking a closer look at the distribution of salaries across the Panthers' three highest paid players, the numbers show why the team has been able to build a complete forward group.

In the 2026-27 NHL season, the salaries of Aleksander Barkov (10M), Matthew Tkachuk (9.5M), and Sam Reinhardt (8.625M) total just over 28M AAV. Compare this to the Edmonton Oilers, who the Panthers dispatched twice in the Stanley Cup Finals, who spend 32 million on their top three forwards. Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid make 26 million of that amount.

The Colorado Avalanche pay their top three 31.6 million and they have just over 400 thousand dollars in cap space. Meanwhile, the reigning Stanley Cup champions in Carolina will pay their top three forwards just 26 million next year, allowing them to retain their needed depth if they hope to repeat.

Gustav Forsling may have the best contract from a team perspective in the league, at least among top defensemen. The 30 year-old Forsling has five years left on a 5.75M AAV deal, ranking well below players such as former Panther Brandon Montour who also has five years remaining on his deal at 7.1M AAV in Seattle.

Deals like the ones for the top forwards and Forsling have allowed the Panthers to retain depth players such as Eetu Luostarinen, who signed an eight year extension locking him in until 2035. Center Anton Lundell (5M AAV) is just 24 years-old and still has four years left on his deal, which is on the same timeline as Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe.

The only pending unrestricted free agent this decade is Brady Tkachuk, who has two years left on his current contract. Based on the track record of Bill Zito, Panthers fans should be optimistic about an open championship window for the next few years.

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