The 22-year-old center signed a two year deal with Florida Sunday
NHL
General manager Dale Tallon retained one of his pieces from last season. Center Jared McCann signed a two year, one-way contract to stay in Broward county and play for the Florida Panthers.
The 22-year-old forward was acquired from Vancouver during the summer of 2016. McCann came from a trade that sent defenseman Erik Gudbransson packing to British Columbia. McCann had a sluggish first season with Florida that ended up sending him down to the AHL to play for Springfield in November of 2016. The following season, McCann picked up his performance. McCann made the hats rain down in the preseason as he scored three goals against the Tampa Bay Lightning on September 28, 2017. Although McCann finished last season with only 28 points, he finished with a +11 rating. This stat shows that he can be a great two way forward. After all, McCann is learning from an excellent two way forward in Alexander Barkov.
In addition, Jared McCann is a huge part of Florida’s young core. Consisting of players like Vincent Trocheck, Aaron Ekblad, and Johnathan Huberdeau, McCann can be plugged in with pure talent and energy. In addition, the team is lead by a young coach in Bob Boughner, who has been a proven winner. The young nucleus will help players like McCann rally around the team.
As previously mentioned, the contract is a two year, one-way deal. It is worth about $2.5 million with an average of $1.25 million per year. Along with Michael Hutchinson’s contract, this will leave the Cats with about $4.5 million in cap spacr. With McCann’s deal, Dale Tallon now has two of his five restricted free agents signed. The only players remaining are Alexander Petrovic, Mackenzie Weegar and Curtis Valk. As a result, Dale Tallon is now one step closer to bringing back his team from last season.
