It’s official: Aleksander Barkov will be back for six more years as a Florida Panther.
News broke Monday night that the Finnish center has signed a six year, $35.4 million deal, at an AAV of $5.9 million. That comes in two years shorter, and $600k cheaper on AAV than my, now obviously player-friendly, swipe at what a Barkov contract may look like.
My immediate reaction upon seeing the figures is that this is potentially an incredible deal for the Panthers. In my previous article, I made a number of comparisons to Anze Kopitar. There are some differences between the two players, most notably how slow Barkov’s first two seasons were in comparison. That aside, if Barkov ends up being anything like Kopitar, this contract is going to get better and better as time goes on.
The only thing, in my mind, you could criticize this deal for is not buying the most of Barkov’s UFA time as possible. True, the Panthers could have insisted on an eight year deal, securing a maximum of four UFA years. The rumors prior to this deal suggested that’s what the Panthers were looking to do. However, you have to remember there are unseen, unknown details in these negotiations. Where was the preferred price point for both sides? Was Barkov not interested in an eight year deal?
It’s easy to gripe about a deal after the fact, but at the end of the day are you really complaining about getting one of the game’s best young forwards for cheaper than Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Brandon Saad, or Matt Duchene? And without having to go through the situation the Panthers just had with Huberdeau? I feel like this is a very reasonable deal for Barkov. If this year is a sign of things to come with Barkov, I think Panthers will be just fine with how things turned out.
EDIT: Adding the Warrior chart that’s been floating around comparing Barkov to Kopitar. All you need to know: it shines very brightly on Barkov. 
