Where do the 2025 Florida Panthers go from here?

The Florida Panthers are back-to-back Stanley Cup champions and should have a lot of optimism about their chances to keep up their winning ways for several more years to come.

Even with the guy who was supposed to be their most impactful player, Matthew Tkachuk, clearly operating at well below 100 percent, they kinda made the last two rounds look easy, outscoring two teams widely considered to be elite by a combined score of 49-27 and lost just three times in 11 games.

Basically everyone on their team except the No. 1 goalie is in or just coming out of the absolute peak of their careers, and excels in their specific spots in the lineup — individually and as a unit — in a way few have in the salary-cap era. They are, simply put, built for this kind of hockey.

It's outrageous. What a team, well built through shrewd trades, great drafting and development, and a few key UFA signings. And now it's up to GM Bill Zito to find a way to keep as much of the band together as humanly possible.

On paper, there's not a ton to worry about. Relatively few free agents — seven unrestricted, one restricted — and about $19 million in cap space. But the pressure is on now to once again wring another ultra-successful season out of this group, and it won't be easy specifically because there are some important players who will either be expensive to bring back or sad to see go.

That all starts with Sam Bennett, the headline-grabbing, edge-playing-on forward who just scored 25 goals in the regular season and then led the playoffs in goalscoring to boot. He will be 29 in about a few days and teams will no doubt be falling all over themselves to outbid one another for his services. He is the classic guy that bad teams overrate, sign long term, and regret pursuing a few years before the deal is up.

I don't think Florida would be in that boat, though. They know how valuable he is, and he knows how good they are. The tax advantage the Panthers have, and the ability to give him eight years instead of a maximum seven, plus their window to be super-competitive for the Stanley Cup over the next two or three seasons has me thinking he won't leave, as long as the Zito is willing to go to an $8-millionish AAV for the max term. That's borderline chump change for the team, given the circumstances. Someone could come in with a blow-away offer for Bennett and give him something to think about — the number "10" has been bandied about in recent weeks — but otherwise, the fit is too good to see either side wanting to walk away from it.

Another guy it might hurt to lose? Aaron Ekblad. But it feels like a done deal. He got suspended for PED use, his utility is very obviously in decline, he doesn't stay healthy, and he probably won't want to take too big of a hit to his current AAV of $7 million. If you're the Panthers, you should let that next contract be someone else's problem. But loyalty and familiarity weigh heavily in this league and, if Ekblad is less concerned about cashing in, you can maybe bring him back at a solid discount on an assuredly absurd market rate.

What about renaissance man Brad Marchand? It's been a great fit, and if the bridge is burned in Boston, maybe they use the Ekblad money to retain him. Not sure they will, because there have been reports that Marchand is purely going to the team that gives him the most money, but as long as the term isn't beyond two or maybe even three years, it could be a good idea. At least, it's hard to see a scenario in which it's an outright bad one. Either way, it feels like the maximum they could do in terms of cap utilization is bring back two of the three guys above, and maybe even that would be pushing it.

Another defenseman, Nate Schmidt, is the only other guy I think would want to make even middling money to bring back. They would probably be able to make it work as long as only one of those three bigger-money veterans is returning. Schmidt was really good in more of a shutdown role for the Panthers this year and using him to bolster the depth once again would probably be worth a few years and a few million bucks.

Otherwise? We're talking about very affordable UFAs: Tomas Nosek, Nico Sturm, and Vitek Vanecek. Both forwards are fine if they're under $1 million against the cap, but also if the Panthers want to use that money on other forwards, that's probably acceptable, too. Vanecek is not good. Florida can use that money more effectively with most other UFA goaltenders, but they do need a very reliable backup as Sergei Bobrovsky continues to age. And if they can live with Vanecek at a low number, that's probably no big deal to them.

The only RFA is Mackie Samoskevich, who's coming off his entry-level deal and is not waiver-eligible. He just had a nice little rookie season (15 goals, 30-plus points) but can't cost very much unless they want to go really long term with him, which I don't think they do or should. A prove-it bridge deal probably works best for all involved here.

Summers like this are the luxury destination teams get through years of hard work to build and lock in a winning core that plays a very specific style. You get to identify players who fit that style, and those players generally want to play for you, often for less than market rate. The Panthers will probably have a handful of lineup spots open and a number of players eager to fill them. They will also have a few movable prospects or even roster players that could help Zito land even more talent.

They're all in. They should be. If the question of re-signing Bennett is all they really have to worry about, well, other recent champions are facing much tougher situations. If Bennett wants to leave, the job gets harder, but they will always have options readily available to them.