Radko Gudas didn’t just land a new contract this offseason - he landed one of the strangest ones in the league.
The Florida Panthers brought back the former Philadelphia Flyers defenseman on a six-year, $9 million deal, a structure that keeps his cap hit at a tidy $1.5 million while tying him to the team through age 42. For a 36-year-old third-pairing defenseman, that’s not the kind of term you see every day.
It’s the tradeoff that makes the deal stand out. Florida gets the lower cap number it wanted, but it had to stretch the commitment way out to make it happen. That’s the kind of move teams usually reserve for players with a very different profile, which is why Gudas’ contract has drawn attention.
The fit isn’t exactly a mystery, though. The Panthers know Gudas well, and that familiarity clearly mattered when they decided to bring him back.
Earlier this offseason, Anaheim traded Gudas to Florida for forward A.J. Greer, and both players wound up signing with their new clubs rather than reaching free agency.
Gudas is coming off a season in which he wore the captain’s “C” for the Ducks and played 56 games. He finished with two goals, 13 points, 67 penalty minutes, and 164 hits.
For Flyers fans, he’s still the hard-nosed blue-liner who spent four seasons in Philadelphia from 2015-16 through 2018-19. In that stretch, he put up 17 goals, 56 assists, 73 points, 355 penalty minutes, 1,009 hits, and a plus-11 rating.
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Brieres Boldest Flyers Move Just Raised A Bigger Offseason Question
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What makes the next stretch interesting is that the Flyers still have room to keep working, with cap flexibility left to maneuver and a roster that could still change before the season begins. Briere has made clear the door is open for more if the right opportunity appears, which leaves Philadelphia in a familiar but more intriguing place than usual: active enough to matter, yet still waiting on the move that would tell everyone how far this offseason is really going to go. [Read more 🡒]