New Development Emerges in Aaron Ekblad's Contract Talks With Florida Panthers

The Florida Panthers are in a tough salary cap situation as one might expect as the team has won back-to-back championships.

The team had three big-name pending unrestricted free agents this summer, defenseman Aaron Ekblad and forwards Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand.

Bill Zito has already extended Bennett with an eight year contract, but with free agency now just two days away, Ekblad and Marchand remain unsigned.

It is not clear which player is a higher priority for the team, but what we do know for sure is that extending Ekblad could prove to be quite difficult.

Today we got another major update on this front from trusted NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, who noted that the Panthers and Ekblad remain far apart in contract negotiations.

This would seem to imply that Ekblad is most likely heading to the market on July 1st, creating a major gap on the Panther's blueline.

Bill Zito has told reporters that he has back up plans in case he is not able to resign Ekblad or Marchand, but hinted that his preference would be for both of them to stay with the team as they attempt the increasingly rare 'threepeat.'

While Marchand only just recently joined the team at the trade deadline this season, Ekblad has been with the club his entire career, appearing in 732 regular-season games with the franchise.

He has put up 118 goals and 380 points in that span. He also set career highs in the playoffs this year with four goals and 13 points in 19 games.

There aren't many right-handed defenseman available in free agency this summer, so if Ekblad does hit the market, he would be a tough player to replace for the Panthers.