The Florida Panthers stopped some of the bleeding on the free-agent front Wednesday by agreeing to terms with forward Anton Lundellon a six-year contract through the 2029-30 season.
“Anton has matured into a dependable multirole center for our club, who seized his opportunity from his first day in North America,” said Florida President of Hockey Ops. & General Manager Bill Zito of the Finland native. “His commitment to improvement and cerebral approach to the game earned him the profound respect of his teammates and coaches, and we are excited to see him continue to grow and succeed with the Panthers.”
The Panthers also agreed to terms with former Winnipeg Jets defenseman Nate Schmidton a one-year contract. Schmidt, 32, skated in 63 games with the Jets in 2023-24, producing 14 points (2-12-14) and a plus-10 rating.
Lundell, 22, posted 35 points (13-22-35), a plus-19 rating and a career-best 54.9% faceoff win percentage over 78 regular-season games this past season. He skated 97:24 of shorthanded time on ice, the fifth-most among Panthers forwards.
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In the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Lundell registered a career-high three goals, 14 assists and 17 points over 24 games, tied for the second-most assists among Florida skaters, alongside a plus-eight rating that was behind only Gustav Forsling (plus-nine) for the best on the team. He registered the primary assists on the series-clinching goals in both the Second Round, Game 6 at Boston and the Eastern Conference Final, Game 6 vs. the New York Rangers.In the Stanley Cup Final vs. Edmonton, Lundell led all Panthers skaters with five assists (0-5-5), second only to Evan Rodrigues (3-3-6) for the most points on the club during the championship round. He also notched a helper on Carter Verhaeghe’s game-opening goal in Game 7.
Jun 24, 2024; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers forward Anton Lundell (15) and Edmonton Oilers defenseman Philip Broberg (86) reach for the puck during the second period in game seven of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final at Amerant Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports
On Monday, the Panthers lost several key players from their Stanley Cup run: Ryan Lomberg signed with Calgary, Brandon Montour (Seattle), Kevin Stenlund (Utah) and Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Anthony Stolarz (Toronto).
Vladimir Tarasenko and key depth pieces Kyle Okposo, Steven Lorentz and Nick Cousins l remain free agents.
The Panthers made sure they had locked up Sam Reinhart with an eight-year, $69 million extension late Sunday night. They then gave defenseman Dmitry Kulikov a four-year deal.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida Panthers keeping ‘dependable multirole’ player Anton Lundell
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Publish date : 2024-07-03 16:17:07
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