Carter Verhaeghe signs eight-year extension with Florida Panthers

Add Carter Verhaeghe to the list of core Florida Panthers players who are sticking around long term.

Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito announced following Florida’s 6-4, season-opening win over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday that Verhaeghe has signed an eight-year contract extension, which keeps him with the organization through the 2032-33 season.

The deal will pay Verhaeghe an average of $7 million per year.

The Panthers signed Verhaeghe ahead of the 2020-21 season, the year after Verhaeghe won a Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He played a minor role for the Lightning as a fourth-line forward and was not tendered a contract by Tampa Bay following that season.

As soon as he got to the Panthers, he took off. He immediately joined Florida’s top-six and became one of the NHL’s top scorers in the process.

In 279 regular-season games with Florida, Verhaeghe has 236 points (118 goals, 118 assists), including 16 game-winning goals.

He picked up his production in the playoffs, scoring 26 goals (including 10 game-winners) in four postseason trips with Florida. That included a team-high 11 goals during last season’s run to a Stanley Cup championship.

His knack for finding the back of the net helped him turn a two-year, $2 million contract into a three-year, $12.5 million deal and now this eight-year extension.

“It’s everything,” Verhaeghe said. “I mean, growing up, you’re just trying to make the NHL and trying to find a place, and I think to be a Florida Panther for this long already is a huge honor for me, and to even extend it longer, I’m just so grateful for the organization to believe in me and Bill to believe in me and give me the opportunity a couple years ago and haven’t looked back. I’m just so appreciative of everyone and how everyone treated me. I’m so proud to be a Panther for life.”

Florida Panthers owner Vincent Viola on Monday hinted at what potentially was to come during the team’s Stanley Cup ring ceremony.

“This guy is just a freak of an athlete,” Viola said before he presented Verhaeghe a box that contained his ring. “I don’t even know how he does some of the stuff he does, but we were all over him when he got made available. He’s got a lot of nicknames, but I’ll tell you one nickname you don’t have and you should have: You’re a stone cold killer, Carter Verhaeghe. You’re a champion. ... You get ready to start a family. You are now a champion. Everything else you’ve got to do like a champion, doesn’t it. Carter, please make sure you know you will remain always a Florida Panther.”

With Verhaeghe’s deal in place, seven of the Panthers’ top-eight forwards are under contract through at least the 2026-27 season.

Forward Sam Reinhart is under contract through the 2031-32 season after signing an eight-year contract extension on Sunday. Captain Aleksander Barkov, star winger Matthew Tkachuk, and center Anton Lundell are under contract through the 2029-30 season.

Eetu Luostarinen and Evan Rodrigues are both signed through the 2026-27 season.

Sam Bennett, the final player from that group, is in the final year of his four-year contract.

Defenseman Gustav Forsling is also under contract through the 2031-32 season.

“It feels so good,” Verhaeghe said of the Panthers’ core being locked in to extensions. “They’re like brothers to me, and honestly, it felt so good last year being able to win with this core. We’ve been at it for a while, and we just keep on building, getting stronger. The friendships I’ve made here are lifelong.”