NHL Rumors: Will the Florida Panthers be able to Re-sign Brad Marchand?

Will the Florida Panthers be able to re-sign Brad Marchand?

The Chris Johnston Show: (Youtube) Chris Johnston, when asked if the Florida Panthers could offer Brad Marchand a large performance-based contract.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Julien McKenzie: “@MelonbysDeadRat asks for you to please explain 35 and over contracts. Could the Panthers use such a contract to pay Brad Marchant a large portion as a performance bonus that wouldn’t count against the cap until the 26-27 season, when they would have more cap room?”

Johnston: “Oh.”

McKenzie: “It’s a lot of math.”

Johnston: “No, I’m just trying to think. I just wanted to make sure I’m giving the correct answer. Yes, yes, they can. So you’ve seen guys like Corey Perry or some others in, in recent times, basically, they’ll have bonuses sprinkled through their contract. They can be games played bonuses, like at 20 games, you get this, 30, 40. They can be performance-related bonuses, like, if the team gets the playoffs or the first round, you get paid this and that.

And all of those bonuses, the accounting for them, that the money paid in the bonus itself, not the player’s base salary, can be deferred a year on the cap.

And so the Panthers could conceivably do that. And I don’t know the exact limitations, if any, on how, like, what percentage has to be paid in the bonus versus whatever, but it is a way to defer the pain. Call it, and it’s not that it’s pain, it’s just you’re trying to be smart about, you know, what you want to do with those contracts.

And so, yeah, that is, that’s something they could do. Now, I believe they would have to sign them to a one-year deal to do it. That’s probably more of the fly in the ointment is, you know, at this stage, I think Brad Marchant is looking at a three to four-year contract, and I think he’s going to have a lot of bidders that are willing to do that.

So, you know, I’m not, I’m not saying this time in Florida is definitely up. I just think that there’s going to be, you know, they have other priorities. I mean, Sam Bennett‘s younger by a fair bit, and having a great playoffs and as part of the culture. Aaron Ekblad, as he said to my colleague, our colleague, Michael Russo, I’ve given my body to the Florida Panthers, but, you know, he’s been with the team a long, long time. And there’s other players too, you know.

I just, I don’t know if they’re going to be able to make even with the kind of contract you’re saying. I think it’s not likely they keep Marchand, but it’s that the door isn’t closed. It’s not like he doesn’t love it there. It’s just it really is going to come down to just, unfortunately, cold, hard business, I think.

You know, he’s, he’s at a stage where he’s looking to they’ll make pretty good money and, and I think the market is going to have it out there for him, and probably on guaranteed contracts that are lasting three years or four years. That’s what I’d be looking for.

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