Last season, Tkachak became the eighth regular season scorer, scoring 104 (42+62) points in 82 games. Huberdeau played 80 games for Florida, in which he scored 115 (30+85) points – the third highest in the league after McDavid and Gaudreau. As you can see, the two star hockey players are not much inferior to each other. Immediately after the trade, the league’s southernmost club signed Tkchak for 8 years with a cap of $9.5 million. As for Huberdo, his contract ends in a year, under which he earns an average of $5.9 million per season. Jonathan turns 30 next summer, the peak of his hockey career, and he could seriously claim something like $7.5-8 million under the new deal. That’s not much less than what Tkachak will now receive. But the most important thing is the age difference: Tkachak is five years younger than Huberteau, the peak of his career is yet to come and he will find it with the Panthers.
It is quite possible to conclude that from this blow of the general manager of “Florida” Bill Zito, it was the “Panthers” who emerged victorious. However, there is one important point – payment. And she has already “pierced” the ceiling in the “panthers”. Currently, Southerners are over the $3.3 million salary cap. It was absolutely obvious that in order to “rejuvenate” the main star of the team through the exchange described above, it was necessary to get rid of several other players, and not at all the last ones. Along with Huberdeau, Florida sent one of its key defensemen, Mackenzie Wigar, to Calgary. The logic is the same: the coming season will be the last for the 28-year-old hockey player under the current contract, under which he earns $3.25 million a year. He scored 44 (8+36) points in 80 games last “regular season” with crazy utility of “+40”. In a year, his salary will certainly increase to at least 7 million dollars, and taking into account the presence of stars such as Barkov, Tkachak and Bobrovsky in the team, who each receive more than 9 million dollars a year, the Uigar’s exchange suggested himself.
But getting rid of Uigar alone won’t solve all of Florida’s problems. At present, two bought-out contracts weigh heavily on the club’s wage bill – Keith Yendl and Scott Darling. The total penalty for buying out the two players’ deals is $6.57 million, and that amount is automatically added to the sum of all contracts and factored into the payroll, dramatically reducing wiggle room. from the management of the Panthers. True, next season the fine will only be $1.24 million, but we are talking about what we have today. In such situations, there is always only one way out – an exchange of expensive assets, which will free up a place under the salary cap, but will significantly reduce your chances of success in the foreseeable future.
For this reason, another important element of the Florida defense last season left the team in mid-July, Ben Chiaro, who, as an unrestricted free agent, signed a contract with Detroit for four years and $4.75 million per year.
Who did the Panthers replace the fallen defenders? When you have three hockey players with major contracts on your team at once, you’re doomed to a constant struggle with the cap and “digging” into the veterans. This is also what happened in this case. The club was rebuilt by the aging Mark Staal, but also by the young Michael Del Zotto and Anthony Bitetto. All three players will earn a ridiculous $750,000 this season, which has allowed them to significantly eliminate the payroll from Huigar and Chiaro’s contracts, but get a terrible drop in defense.
The club’s agreements involving strikers also differed little. The Southerners did not renew the magnificent striker Mason Marchment, who scored 47 (18+29) points in 54 games last season. The reason is the same – a significant increase in wages. Under the previous deal, the striker earned only $800,000, and now he signed a contract with Dallas for four years with a cap of $4.5 million. Instead of Marchment, the roster of “Florida” was replenished by frankly not Chris Tierney and Colin White, who missed almost the entire previous season due to injury. Both “Ottawa” and, above all, this penny. Both contracts end next season, but even if one of them suddenly fires, there’s no big money here anyway.
But there is another problem that Bobrovsky’s team will face in the coming years. With Huberdeau and Wigar, Florida management merged the last of the NHL’s final draft picks through 2026 in Calgary. But the presence of a large number of expensive contracts at the club is often offset by the quality of young hopefuls. As things stand, the Panthers can hardly rely on this factor.
Based on the above, the prospects for the organization, which won the President’s Cup last season for the first time in its history, do not at all inspire optimism for the years to come. The club will continue to try to offset the contracts of Bobrovsky, Barkov and Tkachak at the expense of veterans and not the most talented youngsters, and everything is going on the fact that the Russian goalkeeper will become hostage to his own big money, this that won’t allow him to lift the Stanley Cup over his head.
Pavel Novikov, Athletistic
Source: Sport
I am Sandra Jackson, a journalist and content creator with extensive experience in the news industry. I have been working in the news media for over five years. During this time, I have worked as an author and editor at various outlets producing high-quality content that attracts readers from different demographics.
