Yesterday afternoon Billy Z struck again, locking in 25-year-old Sam Reinhart to a 3-year, $6.5 million contract.
As you may recall, Reinhart was acquired from the Sabres in July for goalie prospect Devon Levi and a 2022 First Round Draft Pick.
Reinhart will be entering his 8th year in the NHL and his first on a team other than Buffalo. In his first 7 seasons, he has played in 454 games totaling 134 goals and 161 assists. While these may not be mind blowing numbers or numbers justifying $6.5 million, you have to remember just how terrible Buffalo has been for the last decade.
Last season, Reinhart had a career high 25 goals in 56 games playing for an embarrassingly bad Sabres team. Keep in mind, that is without Eichel who sat out the majority of the season with a neck injury. Could you imagine if he is on a line with either Hubby or Barkov and not some guy who should be playing in the ECHL but was lucky enough to be drafted by Buffalo!
Reinhart is a versatile, two-way forward who is projected to be on the wing with Barkov and Verhaeghe as the #1 line. Although, we all know that Coach Q gives ice time to those who earn it and is not afraid to play the hot hand and change things up to generate results.
The down side of this contract is that now the Cats only have $1.3 million dollars in cap space pretty much ending their free agency hunt. Although, looking at their projected lineup, I think they will be a force to be reckoned with and should be able to make some noise come playoff time:
Carter Verhaeghe-Aleksander Barkov-Sam Reinhart
Jonathan Huberdeau-Sam Bennett-Anthony Duclair
Frank Vatrano-Anton Lundell-Owen Tippett
Mason Marchment-Noel Acciari-Patric Hornqvist
Brandon Montour-Aaron Ekblad
Gustav Forsling-MacKenzie Weegar
Marcus Nutivaara-Radko Gudas
Sergei Bobrovsky
Spencer Knight
What do you think? Is this the Cats year to finally get a playoff series win? With a lineup like that, anything is possible!