Best potential landing spots for RW Sam Reinhart in NHL free agency this offseason

The 2023-24 season has wrapped and the Florida Panthers are Stanley Cup champions. A key piece in that puzzle was RW Sam Reinhart, who scored a career-high 57 goals and 94 points during the regular season. Reinhart will turn 29 early in the 2024-25 campaign but should command a hefty pay raise and long-term deal in free agency this offseason. Below we’re going to go over the best fits for Reinhart on the open market.

2024 NHL Free Agency

Best destinations for Sam Reinhart

Florida Panthers

This is kind of a no-brainer. You just had a career-high and won the Stanley Cup, of course returning to Florida would be the most ideal situation for Reinhart. There’s always appeal signing in Florida given there’s no state income tax. But the Panthers will have a tough decision to make on Reinhart, who should make north of $10 million per season on his new deal. The Panthers are already paying Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk a combined $19.5 million per season. Throw in Reinhart and you’re looking at three players making up over 30% of your cap.

While the cap will go up and the Panthers have space for Reinhart, it’s more about long-term. Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett, also key members of the championship team, will hit UFA next offseason. The Panthers also have a long list of other RFA and UFA this offseason:

Vladimir Tarasenko
Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Anton Lundell (RFA)
Dmitry Kulikov
Nick Cousins
Kevin Stenlund
Ryan Lomberg
Steven Lorentz
Kyle Okposo

Tarasenko, Kulikov, Cousins, OEL and Okposo are easy to let go. Montour should also bolt in free agency on a hefty deal. This is all fine if you’re the Panthers. The most important player in this group is Lundell, who has a ton of upside as a two-way middle-six center. It’s not a lot that should impact a decision on Reinhart, but it’s worth noting.

Either way, Reinhart returning to Florida is the best possible fit for him. A core of Barkov, Reinhart and Tkachuk just won the Cup. You’d want to keep that group together if you can.

Chicago Blackhawks

The inverse of going back to Florida is going to Chicago, where the Blackhawks are coming off back-to-back seasons in the bottom-3 of the NHL. The end of the Blackhawks dynasty has led to an influx of young talent via the draft, headlined by phenom center Connor Bedard. Behind him, the Blackhawks also have promising young players in Kevin Korchinski, Philipp Kurashev, Frank Nazar and Oliver Moore. The next step would be pairing an elite wing with Bedard for the foreseeable future.

That player could be Reinhart. The Blackhawks are projected to have a ton of cap space, per CapFriendly.com. It could be north of $30 million. We also know the cap is going to increase by the time Bedard’s extension in 2026-27. So if there’s an appealing team that can give Reinhart the most money, it’s Chicago. Playing with Bedard should be appealing to Reinhart and the Blackhawks have a pretty storied history. Reinhart could be a key piece in the next great Blackhawks dynasty.

Nashville Predators

The Preds make a lot of sense for Reinhart. Nashville has a ton of cap space and their core players are all signed long-term (Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi, Ryan O’Reilly, Thomas Novak). Despite being a top-15 offense in 2023-24, the Predators lack elite scorers behind Forsberg, who scored 48 goals. Behind him, no other Preds player scored more than 26 goals. Reinhart had 57 this season. So he would fit in nicely, either on the top line with Forsberg and ROR or on the second line with Novak.

The big question is what the Predators do with goalie Juuse Saros. If the plan is to sign him to a long-term extension, you have to rethink signing Reinhart a bit. You’d likely be allocating over $20 million in cap to those two players, plus Forsberg and Josi. That core is definitely good enough to compete for the Cup. But it doesn’t give you great cap flexibility in the short-term. If Saros is traded, the Predators can string together some cheap goalie options, sign Reinhart and maybe look to add some depth on defense. Saros is great but that contract won’t be. You can take young assets and draft picks to get cheap players to fill out the roster with the Forsberg, Josi, Reinhart core.

The only real young, RFA they’d have to worry about is Luke Evangelista, who is 22 and coming off a strong season with 39 points in 80 games. He’ll be a RFA after 2024-25 and would need a new deal. If Evangelista breaks out, you’re going to have to pay him more.

There are few speed bumps though in a potential deal with Reinhart and the Predators. Andrew Brunette did a great job as head coach in his first season in Nashville. This is a franchise that expects to compete for the Cup having made a trip sort of recently. Adding Reinhart to the mix adds another dynamic scorer, something the Preds desperately need.