Nate Schmidt and Panthers’ top-end trio see stock soar in Top 50 Free Agent rankings

Minutes after letting out an emotional, Panther-like roar as he hoisted the Stanley Cup above his head for the second time in 359 days, Florida GM Bill Zito got to the meat of the offseason: “I think we can bring them all back,” Zito said, referring to his pending free agents.

That’s going to be a stretch – even with Florida’s inherent tax advantages. Just about every Stanley Cup winner has expiring contracts, but few collections of players have married opportunity with timing as well as these who can hit the market in less than two weeks’ time.

The poster child is Sam Bennett, who on Tuesday night became just the third player in league history to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs without a contract in place for next season. The others are the New Jersey Devils’ Claude Lemieux in 1995 and Anaheim Ducks goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who won in losing fashion in 2003. Bennett significantly increased his net worth with a playoff run for the ages, pacing the postseason in goals (tied for second-most in salary cap era) while setting a new NHL record for most goals ever scored on the road (12) in one single playoff.

How much? Our friends at AFP Analytics projected Bennett at 6 years x $6.4 million at the beginning of the playoffs, and that number has risen by a ton. Nonetheless, the eighth year that only Florida can offer, plus the no-state tax advantage, will make whatever the Panthers put on the table tough to beat. For example, Florida offering Bennett a deal of 8 years x $7.5 million, for a total of $60 million, would net him more dollars in his pocket than 7 x $10 million in a higher-tax jurisdiction like, say, Toronto.

But it isn’t just Bennett, Brad Marchand or Aaron Ekblad who will cash in. Less than one calendar year ago, the Winnipeg Jets bought out defenseman Nate Schmidt. He signed a one-year, prove-it deal in Florida for just $800,000 – and the exuberant veteran and first-time winner was the first player handed Lord Stanley by captain Aleksander Barkov on Tuesday night.

Schmidt, now 33, posted five points in the six-game Stanley Cup Final and is now in line for a multi-year deal on the free agent market that will more than triple last season’s pay. There is a fair bit of recency bias baked into some of these future contracts, but nothing makes teams more interested than proven playoff pedigree.

And if Zito can’t bring them all back? The pitch is simple, find a low-risk but high-reward veteran willing to play for cheap, and point to Schmidt’s opportunity for both a better future payday and one more shot at glory.

Here is our first post-Stanley Cup free agent ranking:

Daily Faceoff’s 2025 Top 50 Pending Free Agents

as of June 18, 2025

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POST SPONSORED BY bet365

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READ NEXT: 2025 UFA All-Value team: The top potential bargain signings

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