The Florida Panthers had just won the Stanley Cup, with Sam Reinhart scoring the game-winning goal in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers, and the crunch time was underway for Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito and Reinhart’s representatives.

There was less than a week for the sides to come to terms on a contract extension before Reinhart, coming off a career-high 57-goal season and adding another 10 in the playoffs, became a free agent.

The sides ultimately agreed to an eight-year, $69 million deal, locking up Reinhart through the 2031-32 season.

Reinhart very likely could have made more money on the open market.

But with the way his career has reached new heights since joining the Panthers ahead of the 2021-22 season, why leave?

“As a player, there are a lot of boxes you try and tick off. Florida, for me, just happened to be at the top of each category,” Reinhart said. “First and foremost, being my life. This is where I want to essentially start a family and live. Florida being at the top of the list. We loved our three years here and we couldn’t see ourselves wanting to go anywhere else. Then you add where the organization is — what we’ve done the last couple years, where we’ve gotten to — and it wasn’t something that we wanted to walk away from. Eager for more. We want to keep putting in the work and we want to keep doing it here. So, those were the two biggest factors for me and my wife and that was to stay here. Ultimately, we were confident it was always going to get done.”

That echoes what both Zito and Reinhart had said all season. Both sides wanted the deal to happen. Both sides knew they could get it done.

They just wanted to wait for the right time.

That meant letting the process play out after the playoffs and let Reinhart focus on his on-ice performance. So with the Panthers making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final and the series with Edmonton going a full seven games — and then a parade and the NHL Draft to follow — the sides went into the 11th hour to get the deal done.

But the deal got done.

“Everyone was all with the intention of trying to take care of Sam and still have a chance to win, and that was paramount to him and his decision-making,” Zito said on July 1 after the deal became official. “Nothing but respect and happiness on that end. We’re just thrilled that he’s a part of it.”

And it keeps yet another of Florida’s core players on the team long-term. Captain Aleksander Barkov, star winger Matthew Tkachuk and center Anton Lundell are both under contract through the 2029-2030 season. Defenseman Gustav Forsling is under term through the 2031-32 season as well.

In three seasons with Florida, Reinhart has scored 121 goals and logged 243 points in 242 regular-season games. This included his career season in 2023-24, which included franchise records in power-play goals (27) and overall special teams goals (32) in addition to stellar improvement defensively. Reinhart finished fourth in voting for the Selke Trophy, given annually to the NHL’s top two-way forward and was won last season by Barkov.

“One of the great things about that locker room I found is the uniqueness of the players and a lot of it is so different that they were extreme in their differences,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “I qualified him as the other player beside Ron Francis that I coached that had an IQ and understanding of what happened in the game that is so far off the charts in such a positive way that he’s a resource for myself and the other coaches if there’s something in our game that we’re not noticing. ... He pushed himself. He made himself a Stanley Cup champion and was rewarded with a rightful contract that helped us continue to try to keep that core together. Great mentor in our room but a unique personality that we’re very fortunate to have.”

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