Panthers Sign Tomas Nosek To One-Year Extension

The Panthers have reached a one-year extension with center Tomas Nosek to keep him from unrestricted free agency today, according to Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. He’ll earn the league minimum $775,000 salary on a one-way deal.

The cap-strapped Cats will likely sign a few similar deals today as they aim to assemble as complete a roster as possible. Retaining Nosek is a fine first step, bringing them to 18 players on their projected active roster, although the next deal they sign will put them over the cap for now. They have just $500,000 in space following his signing, per PuckPedia, but teams can exceed the cap by up to 10% during the offseason.

Nosek, 32, returns for his second season in Florida after inking a one-year, league-minimum pact in free agency last summer. Calling him a regular may be a stretch – he was often in the lineup for long stretches before sitting for weeks at a time. He appeared in 59 regular-season games, contributing a goal and nine points while averaging 9:49 per game. He was valuable in the faceoff dot (51.8%) and had a plus-four rating, so his non-offensive impacts were strong, but that was his worst production on a per-game basis since emerging as a full-time NHLer with the Golden Knights in 2017-18.

In the playoffs, Nosek was a healthy scratch for their first-round series against the Lightning but played for the remainder of the postseason after making his debut in Game 3 of the second round against the Maple Leafs. He contributed three assists and a plus-four rating in 16 games, seeing more deployment (11:10 per game) than he did in the regular season.

The Panthers have their top nine forward group filled out – even if they trade a forward to clear cap room, their role will likely be replaced by unsigned RFA Mackie Samoskevich. Nosek will be tasked with playing a more consistent role in the lineup next season, but shouldn’t see much increased responsibility when dressed as their fourth-line center.