| Kris Versteeg avoided salary arbitration by signing a four-year contract on Monday. (Getty Images) |
The Florida Panthers and forward Kris Versteeg were able to avoid salary arbitration on Monday morning by agreeing to a four-year contract.
Terms of the deal were not released by the team, but according to TSN's Darren Dreger the deal is worth $4.4 million per season over the next four years. Versteeg is coming off a three-year contract that paid him just a little over $3 million per season.
“Kris played an important role in our club’s success last season and we are pleased to have reached a long-term contract agreement with him,” said general manager Dale Tallon. “He is a skilled player who recorded career highs in goals and points last season, while playing on our top line alongside Stephen Weiss and Tomas Fleischmann. We look forward to his continued offensive production, as well as his off-ice contributions in the South Florida community.”
He was one of the many additions made by Tallon last summer -- along with Fleischmann, Brian Campbell, Tomas Kopecky and Marcel Goc -- and scored 23 goals to go with 31 assists, finishing as the third-leading scorer on the team. The Panthers were able to get him from the Flyers for just two draft picks, a conditional second-round selection and a third-round pick.
As was mentioned by Tallon, Versteeg spent much of his season playing on a line with Fleischman and Weiss, which proved to be Florida's most productive line while also drawing some of the toughest assignments on the team on a nightly basis.
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