Wouldn't recommend this. You're eventually gonna have to give all these kids tons of money. That 3-year mark that you weren't willing to go past is when it would start to hurt.

Florida has a bunch of money coming off the books at the same time as they have to sign Barkov.

Nuutivara, Stralman, Vatrano and Acciari is like $12M being freed up to worth with, some will have to be spent elsewhere in the lineup but idk if they'd need to sell off Lundell+ to dump Bob to re-sign Barkov, gotta think they'll find another solution then doing that.

Lol give you a first so you can play him as your #1 defenceman....

Yeah that's a big no way on the Schmidt idea there.

Florida's cap is really well managed OUTSIDE of the Bob contract. Let's see what happens with Gabe Landeskog. That could provide a template for Barkov situation. Also really depends where Florida is at in terms of how they perform next year and what they give up/acquire at the deadline. The cap could start increasing again in 2023. Anyway, can't see a deal like this happening, if at all, until next offseason.

The Panthers have 38M in cap space for the next summer and all they have to resign are Barkov and Verhaeghe.

As long as Knight plays on his ELC (until 2023), the Bob contract isn't too big of a problem. The Panthers pay their goalie tandem less than 11 million, which is feasible.

This is set for next offseason. I know it's unlikely but just what I would expect it to look like

33M with 9 roster players...... Also still have to resign Bennett, Reinhart, and maybe Wennberg. They might have to shed the Stralman contract this year unless they let wennberg walk, which is likely.
I would expect Reinhart to be between 6-7M and Bennett between 3.5-5M that's pretty much all the cap space for this year.
Take away approx 11M from the 33M space they have, things will start to get pretty tight, especially with barkov being able to command 10+ himself.

Schmidt and Matheson are just random add on for sh*ts and giggles. I also stated schmidts play would have to fall off in order for it to actually be a thing.

It wouldn't be so bad if they sign cheap defencemen for short term, randomly throwing Schmidt and Matheson in there makes it look worse than it is.

Reinhart's contract comparables are Ehlers (8x6M) and Horvat (6x5,5M). He likely isn't going to get 7 million, especially if he isn't looking for a 7-8 year deal. Bennett has arbitration rights, but he has now played a total of 15 games like a top6 player. For him, 4M would be almost expensive considering that Duclair got 3 million. Together, they command less than 10M, maybe like 9,5M. Take that away from the 33,8M and you have 24M and scraps.

See, the thing is Panthers' cap is really well managed outside of Bob's deal. For that 24M+ they have to sign a few players, yes, but they are guys for 3rd defensive pair or depth forwards for the 4th line. Once they sign Bennett and Reinhart, they have 8/10 of their top skaters locked through 2022-23. And rookies like Lundell and Denisenko will emerge to take the 3rd-line spots. They will have about 20M to sign Barkov and Verhaeghe, depending on what they acquire at FA. There is just no reason to pay that hefty of a price to dump Bob. They can do it once Knight's ELC is over and Bob has 3 years left. Then, a buyout would be possible, too.

Not trading Lundell. Reports are that Zito is closing to resigning Barkov, Carter, and Bennett to new deals that will be announced Wednesday. Also Reinhart already hinted that they were also close on a new deal as well. Zito is a former agent and contract negotiations is one of his strength

Gotcha. I like doing those sometimes but they're so hard since things change dramatically every year from expected

Yeah I make a ton of these crazy unlikely scenarios, people get really butt hurt about them.
Also two things I said were likely to happen this season have already happened with what Bennett got and Stralman needing to be traded.

Well yeah, they are fun hypotheticals but fans by definition are emotionally attached to their teams and players so when you go flinging guys around from team to team you're going to strike a nerve here and there. If you're willing to post it means you're willing to take criticism otherwise keep it in the drafts I guess