Matthew Tkachuk Reacts to Bill Zito's Statement on the Future of UFAs Marchand, Bennett, and Ekblad

Matthew Tkachuk was asked about his feelings on the aforementioned players' future in Florida, and he said he hopes that they can make as much money as they can, be it in Florida or elsewhere.

I'm the guy who tells those guys, 'You better make as much as possibly can, whether that's here or somewhere else,' and I'm a big believer, I'm a big player guy. You better go out and back that Brinks truck up so it's in your front yard.

I'm so happy for those guys, how can you picture a better contract year for those 3? I'm very happy for those guys, whatever ends up happening. But for myself, hopefully being here for many, many, many more years, obviously, I'd love for them to stay, but it's more than that. I hope that whatever decision they make, they're happy with it.

Panthers GM Bill Zito was also asked about the chances of keeping all 3 pending UFA players, and sounded optimistic.

I think we can bring them all back. Yeah.

It could be a challenging summer for the Panthers, who have multiple high-end players who are pending UFAs, not the least of which is Bennett. Additionally, both Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad can hit the open market in the summer as well.