Florida Panthers sign goaltender Akira Schmid to new contract and avoid arbitration

It is the term.

Elliotte Friedman reported the agreement Friday, closing the last open salary arbitration file in the National Hockey League.

The term is where the leverage sits. Schmid had one year of team control remaining, and under the collective bargaining agreement an arbitrator cannot award more than one year to a player that close to unrestricted free agency.

So the hearing scheduled for August 1 could only ever have produced a single season. The second year on this contract is Schmid's first UFA summer, and Bill Zito bought it at the negotiating table because the arbitrator was never allowed to sell it.

Florida Hockey Now reported the Panthers had budgeted roughly $918,750 to $1.1 million for the backup job, which was Schmid's qualifying offer range from the Vegas Golden Knights.

Two million is close to double that.

Read as a one-year price for an .893 save percentage, it is indefensible.

Read as the cost of controlling a 26-year-old goaltender through the summer he turns 27, it is a discount.

Jacob Markstrom has two years left at $6 million, so both halves of the tandem now expire together.

PuckPedia listed Florida near $1.2 million in projected cap space this week against a $104 million ceiling, so Paul Maurice opens camp with almost no room.

That is the real trade-off, and it is one every capped-out team now has a template for.

Fifteen restricted free agents filed this summer and all fifteen signed before a hearing.

Teams have quietly figured out the hearing is the weaker instrument.

It gives you a number, while a negotiation gives you a year you cannot otherwise buy.

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