It has been a remarkable season for Sam Reinhart and the Florida Panthers. Reinhart notched two goals in the previous game, hitting the 50-goal plateau for the first time in his career.
Nobody expected 40 or even 50 goals from Reinhart this season. He has been a perennial 20-goal scorer for his career, having accomplished that feat seven times. The last two seasons saw Reinhart break the 30-goal mark, but nobody expected this leap in goal scoring.
NHL Rumors: Montreal Canadiens, and the New Jersey Devils
Reinhart is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, and he is expected to get a pay raise.
He is putting up career numbers across the board for the Panthers. Again, it helps when you play with Aleksander Barkov. But Reinhart has come along since being drafted by the Buffalo Sabres second overall in 2014.
He was a good player for Buffalo, but he took strides after being traded to the Panthers in July 2021. As part of the trade, the Panthers sent goalie prospect Devon Levi and a first-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft.
Reinhart wants to remain with the Panthers as it is a good fit not only for him but also for the team. Not to mention, general manager Bill Zito also wants to re-sign him. But it will come down to cost.
Reinhart currently has a salary cap of $6.5 million. This will likely rise. However, the Panthers have a salary cap hierarchy, with Barkov making $10 million and Matthew Tkachuk making $9.5 million; he will probably come in somewhere around $8-$9 million. It helps that Florida has no state income tax.
NHL Rumors: Sam Reinhart wants to remain with the Florida Panthers
And with the season Reinhart is having, you have to think about the way he is playing and the fact that he hit 50 goals or maybe more, it will affect his contract negotiations. This was something TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger addressed on Toronto Radio on Monday.
“Well, it will, for sure. But all along, and there has to be a negotiation here, but all along we’ve said as Insiders that there was a real strong connection between the two sides to get something done right. Like Reinhardt knows that, you know, the Florida Panthers don’t have a bottomless pit.
He also recognizes at this point of his career, and he’s got a ton of hockey left yet in his career, that the fit is really good for him, and obviously, it’s good for the Panthers, and when you get to that place, and there’s an appreciation on both sides level of importance to get something done. And you got the luxury of the Florida State Tax right, which helps a lot.
So yeah, there’s got to be negotiation, but I think 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 a huge, huge issue.”
Again, Sam Reinhart is a critical piece to the Panthers offense, but for him to, stay he might have to take less money.”
