Report: Florida Panthers re-sign Sam Reinhart to eight-year extension

Life is good if you’re Sam Reinhart right now. Just one week after he scored the Stanley Cup winning goal for the Florida Panthers and earned his first ring, he’s scored himself a lucrative new contract.

As reported by Elliotte Friedman, Reinhart, arguably the top pending UFA on the board for 2024, managed to reach an agreement with the Panthers right before the 12 a.m. deadline to get an eight-year contract done.

The AAV of the contract has yet to be confirmed at the time of publishing.

Reinhart, 28, had one of the best contract years by any NHLer in history. He buried a career-high 57 goals in 2023-24, beating his previous personal best by a whopping 24 goals and finishing second in the NHL only to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews. Reinhart’s 94 points were also a career high, and he added 10 goals and 16 points across 24 playoff games during Florida’s run to the Cup. Reinhart, however, was far from a one-way player. He graded out as absolutely elite defensively this past season, finishing fourth in the Selke Trophy vote, a rare accomplishment for someone who played on the same line as the Selke winner. Reinhart was Aleksander Barkov’s primary right winger. The Florida Panthers held a whopping 59.15 percent expected goal share at 5-on-5 with Reinhart on the ice despite the fact his line consistently competed against other teams’ best scoring threats. It helped to be playing with Barkov, sure, but Barkov also had a higher xGF% with Reinhart than without.

Reinhart now has three seasons under his belt as a member the Panthers. Originally drafted by the Buffalo Sabres second overall in 2014, he was dealt to Florida in July of 2021 for a 2022 first-round pick (Jiri Kulich) and goaltender Devon Levi.

With Reinhart’s contract out of the way, the Panthers now enter with a bit more clarity on their cap situation. While they were unable to come to agreements with any other UFAs, including defensemen Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson and right winger Vladimir Tarasenko, they still have two restricted free agents on their roster in Anton Lundell and Josh Mahura.