Panthers lock up Reilly Smith with five-year contract extension

The Florida Panthers locked up another one of their core pieces.

On Sunday they signed forward Reilly Smith to a five-year contract extension. The deal is for a total of $25 million, which gives Smith a salary cap hit of $5 million per year. The 25-year-old Smith’s contract will start in the 2017-18 season. He is due to make $3,425,000 next year from his prior deal.

“Reilly was a key player for our team last season,” said general manager Tom Rowe in a statement provided by the team. “He is a valuable contributor to our offense and special teams and is an important part of our talented group of forwards”.

Panthers have $3,716,668 of salary cap space for the rest of the offseason. Florida has $59,052,499 in contracts dedicated to 2017-18. Jonathan Huberdeau is the only major pending restricted free agent for the team next summer.

Florida acquired Smith last offseason, with the contract of Marc Savard, as part of a trade with the Boston Bruins for Jimmy Hayes.

The 6-foot, 185-pound Smith established a career-high with 25 goals last season. He also had 50 points and was a plus-19. He held a 52.85 score and venue adjusted 5-on-5 CF% and a plus-4.79 score and venue adjusted 5-on-5 CF% Rel.

This offseason the Panthers have been busy as they’ve added salary and re-signed important pieces to big contracts.

They brought in defensemen Keith Yandle and Jason Demers and signed pending restricted free agent forward Vincent Trocheck. They’ve also re-signed cornerstone defenseman Aaron Ekblad to a long-term contract extension.

MORE FROM YAHOO HOCKEY

– – – – – – –

Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper