George Richards, FHN Publisher
After 10 seasons with the Florida Panthers, Jonathan Huberdeau holds the franchise record for games played, points and assists.
The 2013 Calder Trophy winner whom Florida picked third overall in 2011, Huberdeau will almost certainly have his No. 11 raised to the rafters not long after he calls it a career.
Which, of course, is a long ways away.
Huberdeau, who turned 29 last Saturday, is coming off the best season of his career — all of which has been in a Florida sweater.
He led the NHL with 85 assists (most by a left wing in NHL history), tied a career-high with 30 goals and his 115 points set a franchise record — blowing past Sasha Barkov’s 96-point campaign with weeks remaining in the season.
Huberdeau will enter this upcoming season in the final year of a contract he signed back in 2016, the $5.9 million average and six-year term a direct match to the contract Barkov had signed months prior.
The Panthers can ink Huberdeau to a contract extension as early as July 13 although — as we saw in Barkov’s case last summer — sometimes these things take a little longer than Day 1 to get sorted out.
Or maybe it will not.
Huberdeau will be getting a big raise come the start of the 2023-24 NHL season and it will probably come from the Panthers.
Yet nothing is certain.
Does Huberdeau sign what will almost certainly be his last big contract to remain with the Panthers — perhaps through the end of his career?
Do the Panthers have the financial means to accomplish this?
Do they want to?
As was the case with Barkov last summer, the Huberdeau contract extension is a big piece to the Panthers’ offseason — but it is not all-encompasing.
It could turn out to be, however.
The Panthers have a pretty good idea of what kind of money and term Huberdeau is looking for and have had plenty of internal discussions about what to do next.
When it came to Barkov, there was never any real discussion among the Panthers’ front office.
Barkov was going to get a fair deal — perhaps below market value, sure — but when it was over, Florida’s captain ended up signing the largest contract in franchise history at eight years and $80 million.
As it stands right now, the Panthers will go into this coming season with two players (Barkov and Sergei Bobrovsky) making $10 million — making them tied as the ninth-highest paid players in the NHL.
Aaron Ekblad will make $7.5 million (tied for 60th in the NHL) for the next three seasons.
Huberdeau, certainly, is looking at becoming the third Florida player to get $10 million.
Perhaps more.
There have been questions on whether Huberdeau wants to remain with the Panthers’ organization although those rumors have been unfounded.
Huberdeau has never, save for a few moments in frustration with the direction of the organization in years past, made overtures about wanting to leave.
Like Barkov and Ekblad, Huberdeau is part of the fabric of the Panthers.
Last season, Huberdeau was asked about Barkov becoming the franchise’s leading goal scorer.
The two, intertwined on the ice for much of their careers, dominate the team’s record book.
Without being asked about his own contract status, Huberdeau reiterated that he wants to remain in South Florida and continue on with the Panthers.
“We have been fortunate to be here for a lot of years and obviously we love playing here, love playing in Florida,’’ Huberdeau said.
“Barky just signed a large contract and that’s nice to see he’ll stay here. We both want to stay here for the rest of our careers. Hopefully me and him can stay here for the rest of our careers.”
But there are financials which need to be worked out.
As it stands now, there are eight players in the NHL who make north of $10 million per season.
One of those players is Artemi Panarin, a left wing who signed a whopper of a deal with the New York Rangers in 2019.
Some in South Florida may remember that summer.
Panarin had been in talks with the Panthers about coming south from Columbus with Bobrovsky as a package deal with Florida willing to pay the playmaking left wing market value.
He ended up signing with the Rangers for $11.6 million per season, a number that the Panthers are believed to have been willing to pay.
Huberdeau, with the career he has had and the recent numbers he put up, could be looking at a similar contract.
The numbers between the two players are comparable.
Of course, the ability to stay with the Panthers — and not have to pay any sort of state or city income tax — would likely get Huberdeau a lot closer to $10 million in Florida.
Another thing to consider is the length of the deal.
While Barkov got the eight-year max on his contract, he will be 27 when it kicks in this coming season.
Huberdeau will be 30 when his new deal begins.
Are the Panthers willing to give their star wing a contract with that much term on it?
One thing we do know is that the two sides will likely know where one another stands by the time the NHL draft rolls around early next month in Montreal.
If the two sides are at a standstill, if Florida does not think a deal could get done, what happens next?
As we brought up in the MacKenzie Weegar story last week, the Panthers have to make some big decisions in the coming weeks.
If Florida thinks it can sign both Huberdeau and Weegar to extensions which work for both sides, fantastic.
But if not, does one of those players get traded so not to walk away for nothing in free agency?
The thought here is a deal with Huberdeau gets worked out in the coming weeks or months with the Montreal native — who summers in Quebec but probably does not want the hassle of being a player there — signing at around six years and $60 million to stay with the Panthers.
Weegar likely sticks as well, although that is a situation which needs to be monitored moving forward.
With only $4 million under the salary cap as things stand right now, the Panthers are going to have to make some serious moves — and soon.
Extensions to either Huberdeau and/or Weegar have no bearing on next season’s cap situation.
But as the Panthers look to what they will look like in the future, these are big decisions.
Florida Panthers Roll Call is a recurring feature at Florida Hockey Now leading into the start of trade and free-agent season.
The NHL Draft begins July 7 in Montreal; the opening of free agency is July 13.