30-year-old Brandon Montour, fresh off of hoisting the Stanley Cup, is a pending free agent. He will have lots of potential suitors, including the Toronto Maple Leafs, as they look to solidify the right side of their blueline. Unfortunately, Montour revealed during the Cup celebration that it may be difficult for any team to pry him out of Florida.
With $19.5M in cap space, and 13 pending free agents including Sam Reinhart, it may be difficult for the Panthers to fit Montour's projected $7M+ cap hit in, but like the Tampa Bay Lightning, they have warm weather and a tax-free state to sweeten the pot. Toronto simply can't offer him those luxuries.
After posting 73 points last season, Montour had a bit of a down season this year, registering just 33 points. After confirming his intensions, it would not come as a surprise to hear that the Panthers and Montour's camp begin to work on an extension immediately to prevent him from testing free agency in just 6 days.
It will be an intriguing few days in Florida given the number of free agents they have and the short amount of time they have to re-sign a handful of players. Should he reach free agency, the Leafs and GM Brad Treliving will be interested as Treliving looks to rebuild the Leafs' blueline, but they will have to be wary of the fact that Montour had one breakout offensive season and isn't the top-pairing defenseman they desperately need to play with Morgan Rielly.
