Florida Panthers Bargain Of The Year: Jonathan Marchessault

Back on July 1st The Florida Panthers inked Jonathan Marchessault to a modest 2 year, 1.5 million dollar deal. With the hopes of adding scoring to the third line, things didn’t go exactly as planned. Not in a bad way though, Marchessault would break out in a big way.

Before this season Marchy had only logged 49 NHL games in his career, putting up 8 goals and 12 assists in that time frame. A majority of his time was spent with the Tampa Bay Lightning and their AHL affiliate Syracuse Crunch.

The deal quickly turned into a low risk, high reward situation when Marchessault got off to a great start in 2016. After losing Jonathan Huberdeau and Nick Bjugstad to extensive injuries in the preseason, it was evident that guys would need to step up to produce.

Marchessault would be right there to answer the call with 11 points in the first 10 games of the season (6 goals, 5 assists). With all the line shuffling going on throughout the season, no matter where he was placed he continued to put up a consistent effort night in and night out.

By the all-star break he had already scored 14 goals, one being a game winner in O.T. against his former team. That left him behind only Vincent Trocheck with 18 at the time. The two of them very much carried the team offensively, especially through the dark times of Seth Griffith on the first line.

It was only fitting that Marchessault would have a huge month of March, coining the phrase “Marchy madness”.

He’d score a hat trick against the Chicago Blackhawks, contributing to his 10 goals for the month. That brought him to 29 on the campaign, a mark that no one expected when the season began.

On April 3rd against the Montreal Canadiens, he’d become the first Florida Panthers 30 goal scorer since David Booth in 2008-09. That’s more goals on the season than John Tavares, Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin just to name a few.

All in all he was more about the team than himself. Proud of his accomplishments, Marchy like many of us was unhappy with the outcome of the season.

You can’t ask for much more than what Jonathan Marchessault has brought to the Florida Panthers. At $750,000 a season, he’s by far the best bargain deal in the NHL. If he continues his scoring ways next season, you’d have to think that the Panthers will try to keep him around a little longer.