After winning the Stanley Cup, the Panthers have a big summer ahead

The Florida Panthers have won the 2024 Stanley Cup. Congratulations! 

Now, they have to quickly flip their focus to the summer. Within one week, Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito and his staff will need to get ready for the NHL Awards on Thursday, the NHL Entry Draft on Friday and Saturday, the team championship parade on Sunday and the opening of NHL free agency on Monday. 

A nice and easy Stanley Cup celebration, right? 

Florida has their hands full this summer, with the most notable unrestricted free agent in Sam Reinhart and a long list of free agents and tasks they need to prioritize. 

Tyler Yaremchuk: Down in South Florida, they are pouring beer off the second deck of the Elbo Room (bar) and Matthew Tkachuk is jumping into the ocean with Lord Stanley… Off the ice, management side, it’s a quick turnaround for Bill Zito. He’s got to quickly turn his attention to keeping this group together potentially, find ways to improve it… They have a lot of free agents they need to take care of. Does the Stanley Cup win change any of those free agents’ perspectives? 

Frank Seravalli: I wonder if you’re the Florida Panthers… We’ve offered Sam Reinhart a really significant contract. If it was as easy as 8 x $9.5 million, that deal would’ve already been done… They (AFP analytics) have Reinhart at like $11.3 million per year… Now that you’ve won, do you go ‘Maybe we can get three players for that number?’ Does it make you think differently as a team, thinking long-term? 

Tyler Yaremchuk: Not to say Florida is going to take their foot off the gas and kick their feet up, but there is pressure off when you win a Cup. You build yourself up some good grace. You can kind of sit there and go ‘Okay, we did the thing. Now let’s look at a four or five-year approach.’ Versus if you had lost that Game 7, I think you sit there and you have to pay 11 million dollars to Reinhart, you have to keep that band together and you have to keep pushing as hard as you can for next year.

Frank Seravalli: I’ve said this before, this is actually the most intriguing summer the Florida Panthers have had in years. 

You can watch the full episode here: