Florida Panthers bring back Radko Gudas to round out defensemen group
The Florida Panthers and “The Butcher” have officially worked out a deal to reunite.
Defenseman Radko Gudas on Wednesday agreed to a six-year deal with the Panthers, returning to a team with whom he spent three seasons but departed prior to them winning a pair of Stanley Cups. The deal runs through the 2031-32 season.
The deal carries an annual cap hit of $1.5 million, according to SportsNet’s Elliotte Friedman. This leaves the Panthers with about $3 million in cap space to sign restricted free agent goaltender Arkin Schmid and potentially add depth forwards in free agency.
“Radko is a proven, experienced leader and a strong reliable defensive presence for our blueline,” Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito said. “He is keenly familiar with our team, having been a big part of our first run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2023, and we are thrilled to welcome Radko and his family back to South Florida.”
The Panthers acquired Gudas’ negotiating rights from the Anaheim Ducks on Monday in exchange for the negotiation rights to forward A.J. Greer, as both players were set to become unrestricted free agents at noon Wednesday.
This essentially gave the Panthers about a 48-hour window to exclusively negotiate with Gudas on a potential reunion.
And in the end, they struck a deal.
And that deal locks up Florida’s core of seven defensemen heading into the season: Aaron Ekblad, Gustav Forsling, Seth Jones, Niko Mikkola, Dmitry Kulikov, Uvis Balinskis and Gudas.
Gudas, 36, will be entering his 15th NHL season and just finished a three-year stint with Anaheim. He was with the Panthers from 2020-2023, logging 44 points (seven goals, 37 assists) through 203 regular-season games. While he wasn’t with the Panthers for either of their two Stanley Cups, Gudas is a player Panthers coach Paul Maurice has praised as having helped establish the team’s culture.
Known for his physical nature on the ice, Gudas has 3,222 career hits.
Gudas only played 56 games last season for the Ducks, missing time late in the season — and only playing in one of Anaheim’s six first-round playoff games — after sustaining a lower-body injury in March. He also missed five games after being suspended for a knee-on-knee hit on the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews.
This story was originally published July 1, 2026 at 11:48 AM.
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