Stop wasting money on depth guys

The one part of the Florida Panthers' advantage that any GM with discipline can replicate immediately

The Florida Panthers have a lot of advantages that their opponents can’t copy. There has been some slight, not at all over-the-top complaints about how teams situated in low-tax states are better able to recruit and retain talent. Beyond that, two Stanley Cups in the last two tries, great weather in December and the ability to be relatively anonymous away from the rink all have their own appeal.

There’s nothing that a Canadian team can do about any of those things. Which makes it even more maddening that the Canadian teams have such a lousy track record of imitating one of the few Florida advantages they could easily replicate.

The Panthers draw a hard line with money for their depth pieces. They simply don’t pay much over the league minimum, and in some cases refuse to budge from even that low threshold.

The temptation here might be to argue that this is just one more aspect of the Florida advantage, that the same things that compel Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad to take lower cap hit deals work on fourth liners and third-pair defencemen, too. There’s maybe a little bit of that mixed in, but not much.

The real answer is that the Panthers draw a hard line because they don’t really care if they have to replace an end-of-roster piece with somebody else. All these guys are replaceable; if they weren’t replaceable, they wouldn’t be at the end of the roster. So if that fourth-line left wing starts thinking he’s driving Stanley Cup wins and wants to be paid accordingly, or didn’t have a great Final series, or gets a little too casual with his pregame suit and tie, Florida simply grabs the next European free agent or veteran bubble guy or waiver fodder that catches its eye.

Don’t believe me? Consider what the Panthers are slated to spend on their end-of-roster pieces (the bottom four forwards, bottom three defencemen and backup goalie), and where they got those guys in the first place:

Tomas Nosek, fourth-line centre, $775,000. Nosek signed a one-year, league-minimum contract after a two-goal season in New Jersey. Then he won the Stanley Cup as a fourth-line centre in Florida, not scoring a lot but winning faceoffs, killing penalties, posting good possession numbers. This earned him a raise of $0, as the Panthers waited until July 1 to re-sign him to another league-minimum contract.

Jesper Boqvist, fourth-line wing, $1.5 million. Boqvist is the priciest member of the end-of-roster forward group. He signed a one-year, league-minimum contract as a free agent after Boston decided he wasn’t worth a qualifying offer. The 26-year-old had 12 goals and 136 hits in 59 games when Florida re-upped him on a two-year deal at double the league minimum.

A.J. Greer, fourth-line wing, $850,000. Greer signed a two-year contract as a free agent after a six-goal/100-hit season in Calgary, earning a 10% bump on the league minimum.

Jonah Gadjovich, 13th forward, $775,000. Gadjovich was another unqualified RFA who subsequently signed in Florida as a free agent. The Panthers gave him $810,000 that first year, then extended him on a two-year deal while clawing the money back to the league minimum.

All of these guys are useful depth pieces. All of them are replaceable and arrived in Florida as cast-offs from other organizations. The only one the Panthers splurged on a bit was Boqvist, and that one’s easy to justify given his age and unique profile.

It’s a similar story on the blue line and in net:

Dmitri Kulikov, No. 5 defenceman, $1.15 million. Kulikov signed a one-year/$1.0 million reclamation deal as a 33-year-old free agent, and he’s the one guy in this group that we can maybe chalk up to the magic of the Panthers. He had a good season in Florida, won his Cup, and then instead of cashing in took a four-year deal at that $1.15-million cap hit. That being said, he also only averaged 13:55/game in that first playoff run in Florida, so this is a deal that has only improved as his role increased this past season.

Jeff Petry, No. 6 defenceman, $775,000. Petry, a frequent healthy scratch in Detroit, signed a one-year deal with performance bonuses in free agency. He’s a very Florida get, with decent underlying numbers, and should be fine in this role even at 37. Most importantly, he’s cheap.

Uvis Balinskis, No. 7 defenceman, $850,000. An undrafted European veteran, Florida signed Balinskis to a one-year contract after a 35-point season in the Czech league, then extended him on a two-year deal at his current price point.

Daniil Tarasov, No. 2 goalie, $1.05 million. Florida sent a fifth-round pick to Columbus for Tarasov, a massive young goalie coming off an awful year (0.881 save percentage). It’s hard to say from the outside whether they just like Tarasov, or if they were interested in saving money (outgoing backup Vitek Vanecek signed for $1.5 million in Utah). Either way, Tarasov is among the league’s cheapest backups.

The upshot of all this discipline is that the Panthers are able to fill the bottom eight slots on their roster for just $7.725 million. With most teams running a 22-man roster these days, that gives the Panthers a total of $87.775 million for their other 14 players, an average of $6.27 million per player.

It’s how Florida affords 11 players making more than $5 million/season, with six of them north of $7 million/season. The Panthers have simply shaved every penny they can at the positions that don’t really move the needle, so that they have dollars to give to the guys who do.

Low taxes and sunshine are great, but every team has to come up with a roster under $95.5 million. It’s a much, much easier task when the general manager is willing to be ruthless with the depth guys.