'Things are going to change quick here': Brandon Montour enjoying the Cup ride, knowing it might be last with Panthers (2024)

EDMONTON — On the ice, Brandon Montour is “highly overrated.” Off it, he’s “mean to cats.”

At least that’s what the Florida Panthers defenseman’s coach says about him.

And that’s not even to mention that Montour has a “bad attitude” and is “late to practice every day.”

Panthers coach Paul Maurice, of course, has had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek when talking about the veteran unrestricted free agent this postseason — just as Maurice has made it a point to say pending UFA forward Sam Reinhart’s success has been “a serious problem in the locker room” loud enough that potential suitors can hear him.

Both can become unrestricted free agents in 18 days.

In other words, “Mo’s” M.O. is to kiddingly disparage any of his players in the final year of their contracts to fend off interested parties.

“That’s what I used to say about Gus Forsling,” Maurice said of the defenseman, who signed an eight-year extension in March. “Now I say the guy’s the best defenseman in the world, right? All you got to do is sign and you get your own marketing program up here.”

Press Maurice further on Montour, and the act crumbles as he gushes over the most talkative, jovial and downright hilarious member of the Panthers’ tight-knit blue line — a group that helped the team allow the fewest goals in the NHL during the regular season and is once again doing it in the postseason.

Montour would love to re-sign, too. He loves living in South Florida and playing for the Panthers.

But he also can read tea leaves and knows that there is a chance that, in a few weeks, he may have to pick a new home for next season and beyond.

Salary-cap space isn’t infinite, and Reinhart and Montour are the two highlights of 11 pending UFAs on the Panthers roster, plus pending restricted free agent Anton Lundell. Add in the fact that Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad are all eligible for extensions, and Montour senses the squeeze that could result in his departure.

Montour has been able to park that distraction, though, focusing on the only thing that truly matters to him now: The Panthers are two victories from the first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history — and the first in the 30-year-old’s career.

“Things are going to change quick here in 2 1/2 weeks, three weeks,” Montour told The Athletic. “I’ve played this out all year. Two to three weeks isn’t going to hurt anything. My whole goal right now is to play the best I can for this team, and the rest will take care of itself afterward.”

Like with Reinhart, there has been little to no conversation between the Panthers and Montour about a contract beyond this season. General manager Bill Zito has punted decisions and the work that will need to be done to finalize those decisions until the short window between the Stanley Cup Final ending and free agency opening on July 1.

And Montour doesn’t blame the Panthers for not having previous discussions with him about a new contract, despite his monster season a year ago. Remember, this is a guy who set a single-season Panthers record for defensem*n in 2022-23 with 57 assists and 73 points and tied the single-season D record with 16 goals, then seemingly had every big moment go through him during the Panthers’ run to the Stanley Cup Final with eight goals and 13 points.

But Montour was playing hurt at the end and needed offseason shoulder surgery, so he understands why the Panthers wouldn’t be in a rush to extend him entering the final year of his contract before seeing how he recovered.

“Coming in, you had rehab, my injury and just focusing on trying to just get back and helping as quick as I can — playing the right way, trying to find my game,” Montour said. “That’s what we were kind of focused on. I think I played myself into a situation where I know that it’s going to take care of itself when it does. My whole focus was to get back to this point and, again, the rest will take care of itself. Both sides have a great relationship. We’ll deal with that after we win this thing. That’s our goal.”

Do the math, and you do have to wonder if it’s as simple as retaining Reinhart or Montour.

Reinhart, who scored a career-high 57 goals — 27 on the power play — is likely the priority. If it happens, Montour may be the casualty because there should be a big market for a veteran defenseman who has a big shot, can pile up points, can play physical, can log big minutes and compiled outstanding defensive metrics this season.

But as even Montour’s agent indicated, you never say never, because Zito is one smart cookie.

“Brandon would love to stay in Florida, and whether he does or not will depend on their salary-cap situation and where they’re at,” Matt Keator told The Athletic. “We’ll talk to Billy after the season with an open mind, and we’ll see where it goes.”

It hasn’t been the ideal contract year, statistically.

After returning from his shoulder injury, Montour scored eight goals and 33 points in 66 games. On an 82-game basis, that only shakes out to a 41-point pace, which is a major dip. So what’s behind it?

Part of it is from a downtick in power-play scoring, despite his time on the man advantage being close to the same (3:54, down from 4:15). The Panthers’ expected and actual goals rates were consistent year-to-year in Montour’s minutes, though. He just didn’t have the results to show for it.

It could be that Florida spent more time defending leads than trying to erase deficits, and that allowed him to focus more on a two-way game than freewheeling offense. Florida was better defensively in Montour’s minutes, and he was better defensively relative to his teammates.

Whatever it was, Maurice wasn’t complaining, and the team finished first in the Atlantic Division with Montour playing 23:27 per game despite coming off the injury.

“He’s got a huge tank,” Maurice said. “So, about Day 3 of training camp last year, I’m getting to know all these guys (as a first-year coach) and I’m watching this guy skate around. He’s got a smile on his face at the end, and I’m thinking, ‘You can’t be smiling at this point. This has been way too hard.’

“So, I kind of grabbed him and said, ‘I’d like to see you push a little harder tomorrow.’ He kind of looked at me, he was great about it, and then I started watching more going, ‘Oh, my God, can this guy skate. He’s smiling because he can handle all this.’ So, he’s got this big tank on him. Very fit man.”

Montour said this is something he has always prided himself on. He was a minute-munching machine last postseason, including skating 57 minutes, 56 seconds, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final against Carolina.

“I love obviously getting better and eating the right way, training the right way, just getting what I need, especially when you get older,” Montour said. “It doesn’t matter whether you go out running or work out in the gym or do other stuff outside, you just have to try to get something active going. It’s all about being able to skate 20, 30 minutes, whatever … not just not wearing down as the game goes on but feeling like you’re getting stronger as the game goes.”

That could be part of why the Panthers are the best third-period team in the NHL, having outscored opponents 28-11 in 19 playoff games.

“Early in my career, whether it was Anaheim or in Buffalo, I always had confidence I could become a top defenseman in this league,” Montour said. “I always believed in myself, that I was capable of playing heavy, heavy minutes.”

Oilers veteran center Adam Henrique, who runs a foundation in Brantford, Ontario, with Montour, has known Montour for a long time and always knew he had this in him.

“You could see it before,” Henrique said. “Sometimes you just need an opportunity to present itself for a player to have their breakout. And a lot of times it’s not always on your first team or maybe even your second team. It’s just something that when you get that opportunity, you’ve got to take advantage of that. It’s great to see him finally get that.

“And now you wait and see what happens, I guess, in the summertime.”

The summertime, or at least some time between now and July 1, should reveal just how much teams feel Montour is worth. The answer may be one thing in Florida and another elsewhere.

Again, the Panthers only have so much cap space, and a competing team looking for an offensive-minded right-handed defenseman could offer him big money.

The question is whether he can play up to that. It’s clear that his game clicks in Florida. With Forsling’s pair taking on top competition, Montour has more freedom to play to his offensive strengths. He’s a big part of the Panthers’ rush game and their No. 1 power-play quarterback.

So a team looking at him will want to know if it has the systems and defensive support to maximize his game — and an opening on the top power-play unit. That’s a risk when you’re talking about a player that Evolving-Hockey projects would have an average annual value of approximately $7.4 million at a seven-year term, which isn’t too far off what the site’s model pinpoints as the most likely deal for Montour to extend in Florida with (seven years, $7.2 million AAV).

Here are the league-wide comparables for a deal of that value given a defender around his production — some jumping out for better and some for worse:

There’s good reason to hesitate at the idea that Montour is a $7 million-plus defenseman after failing to come close to last season’s heights.

That’s why Evolving-Hockey’s model points to a shorter-term deal being the most probable for Montour: a three-year deal worth approximately $6.5 million per, which is a better compromise and a lot more risk-averse. To stay in Florida, that shifts slightly down to a $6.2 million cap hit.

Those deals are more on par with his market value and give these comparables:

This kind of deal — or at least, this cap hit — is also probably the most expensive the Panthers can swing with Reinhart’s next contract in mind.

This of course doesn’t factor in Montour’s impact on a room. The one thing that always strikes people first about him is his infectious personality.

He’s one of the most popular players on the Panthers because he’s always keeping things light.

“I remember the first time playing against him when he was at UMass and I was at BU,” said Panthers teammate and former Sabres teammate Evan Rodrigues. “He was the same person. I think we played him one of his first games in college hockey, and he was already loud and always had a big personality — I’ll say that.”

Montour said sometimes he’s probably too loud.

“You could ask any one of my teammates or coaches, I’ve always had that low-stress, keep-the-room-light personality,” he said. “Especially in times when it’s pretty hectic and guys are tense, it’s one of my strengths to bring it down a notch. Maybe sometimes I could be a little bit more serious on the ice and on the bench, but it’s all fun. You’ve got to enjoy it. You’ve got to enjoy it all. I mean, we’re playing a game for a living.”

Rodrigues said nobody on the Panthers would want Montour to tone it down, though.

“One of the best parts about our locker room is that we’re all ourselves. It is very welcoming,” Rodrigues said. “No one’s trying to be too cool or be too much of anything. Everyone’s just themselves. What makes us such a unique group and I think it’s what makes our group so close, is that you come to the rink and you love being here. You’re yourself. You love the guy next to you. You’re also chirping the guy next to you at the same time. It very much feels like having a bunch of brothers.

“I think when you grow up with boys in a household, each family has one that is a little s— disturber a little bit. Maybe Monty is ours.”

As Henrique joked, “(Montour) loves to talk.”

And he loves to win.

“I think, for me, he’s found his place,” Maurice said. “That’s how I feel about him. He’s so much like possibly all of us, right? Certainly, the guys in the room have come to a place where that specific thing that he does very well — he skates so very well, and he uses it on both sides, I think he had seven hits in Game 4 (of the Rangers series), he uses it on both sides of the puck — can come out (in Florida).

“That (Montour) can be himself and then his personality is important in our room because he is funny, right? And he’s got stuff to say, and when things are tense, he’s still talking. He can live in the moment. He’s a really, really important part of what we do.”

Other than that he’s mean to cats, of course.

Montour’s lone goal is to win the Stanley Cup. Then he’ll worry about his future.

Because the one thing Montour remembers is last year’s feeling of watching Vegas celebrate the Stanley Cup right in front of the Panthers.

He couldn’t stomach to watch.

“You work so hard and you dream about this since you were 3 years old,” Montour said. “It’s something that’s tough. Last year was not something that I wanted to experience. So, luckily enough we have this opportunity again to turn the story and change that.”

— Data via CapFriendly, Evolving-Hockey and AllThreeZones

(Photo: Rich Gagnon / Getty Images)