{"id":139002,"date":"2023-07-01T13:14:58","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T17:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=139002"},"modified":"2023-07-01T13:14:58","modified_gmt":"2023-07-01T17:14:58","slug":"kevin-stenlund-signs-contract-with-eastern-conference-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/07\/01\/kevin-stenlund-signs-contract-with-eastern-conference-champions\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Stenlund Signs Contract with Eastern Conference Champions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Florida Panthers<\/a> signed free agent centre Kevin Stenlund<\/a> to a one-year contract at the opening bell of free agency Saturday. Stenlund’s deal carries a $1 million cap hit for its only season. Stenlund, 26, entered the NHL via the entry draft in 2015 when the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> drafted him in the second round.<\/p>\n

Kevin Stenlund to Florida 1×1<\/p>\n

\u2014 Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) July 1, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n

Florida Panthers Sign Kevin Stenlund to Contract<\/h2>\n

In 54 games last season for the Winnipeg Jets<\/a>, Stenlund scored six goals and added three assists. That stood as his first season outside of Columbus, where he played the first four years of his career. He never played a full NHL season, with last year sitting as the first time he found himself in the lineup in at least half of his team’s games.<\/p>\n

In a grand total of 125 games played, Stenlund has 17 goals and 12 assists for 29 points. He averaged 12:21 in ice time per game over those first five years. His relative Corsi-for over that same period sits in the negative as well. As a former second-round pick, one might expect more of him thus far. That said, he enters the prime years of his career right now. Maybe a new location and team spurs the change he needs to find that next gear.<\/p>\n

What this Means for the Future<\/h3>\n

From the Panthers’ end, Stenlund’s contract offers little to no risk. This is a depth move, to add competition in the bottom half of their lineup. They now have 12 forwards with NHL experience under contract, but certainly doesn’t indicate they’re done.<\/p>\n

Besides, they have young forwards with RFA status who likely return too. That includes Grigori Denisenko<\/a> and Aleksi Heponiemi<\/a>, both of which desire to crack the Panthers’ lineup for full-time jobs. This may happen next year.<\/p>\n

Stenlund hopes to carve out a role in Florida for himself, however. For that to happen, he needs a strong camp in the fall. Expect more names in the mix here too; the Eastern Conference Champions will want all the competition in camp that they can get. They fix their eyes on a Cup run, this next season and beyond.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Terrence Lee-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Florida Panthers signed free agent centre Kevin Stenlund to a one-year contract at the opening bell of free agency Saturday. Stenlund’s deal carries a $1 million cap hit for its only season. Stenlund, 26, entered the NHL via the entry draft in 2015 when the Columbus Blue Jackets drafted him in the second round. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2377,"featured_media":139018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,34],"tags":[6535,1431,662,5961],"class_list":["post-139002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-panthers","category-news","tag-florida-panthers-analysis","tag-kevin-stenlund","tag-nhl-free-agency","tag-winnipeg-jets-analysis"],"modified_by":"Colton Osmond, Dept Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2377"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}