Florida Panthers goalie Akira Schmid filed for salary arbitration before the 5 p.m. ET deadline on Sunday, July 5, just days after entering restricted free agency at the start of this month. The 26-year-old Swiss international had joined the Panthers in a trade deal with the Vegas Golden Knights on June 30, in exchange for a third-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft.

Firstly, NHL journalist Alex Baumgartner took to his official X account to share the news via PuckPedia and commented that he isn’t surprised by it.

“Panthers goaltender Akira Schmid has filed for arbitration, per @PuckPedia,” he wrote in an X post on July 5. “Not completely surprised.”

After that, Baumgartner plugged his interview with Panthers general manager Bill Zito about Schmid’s contract situation regarding salary arbitration. With it, he seemingly indicates that something might be agreed upon between both parties sooner rather than later since the player wants to be with the organization.

“When I asked Zito about Schmid’s contract on Wednesday, he mentioned the newly acquired goaltender had arbitration rights and that he was “not anticipating real difficulty,” and that Schmid is “excited to be here,” noted PHWA member and Panthers beat writer, in the aforementioned post on X.

In his next X post about it, Baumgartner pointed out that salary arbitration doesn’t often get to the hearing stage since the parties in question sort things out prior to it.

“Even when a player files for arbitration, it’s rare they actually make it to an arbitration hearing,” he explained. “The two sides almost always come to an agreement before hand.”

With these two posts on social media platform X, Baumgartner has basically confirmed that the resolution to the Panthers-Schmid situation is a foregone conclusion.

NHL players who filed for salary arbitration this offseason: A brief overview

Apart from Akira Schmid, 14 other NHL players filed for salary arbitration this offseason before the July 5 deadline, and all of them are restricted free agents (RFAs).

It includes names like Dallas Stars forward Jason Robertson, his younger brother and Pittsburgh Penguins forward Nick Robertson, St. Louis Blues forward Connor McMichael, and New York Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider.

Notably, only the RFAs have the option to file for arbitration to maximize their salary with their latest team and become ineligible to sign an offer sheet from other teams at the same time, as per Puckpedia.com.

Last offseason, there were 13 players involved in salary arbitration, two of them team-elected, but ultimately, all of them signed on the dotted line before the hearing.

While the deadline for first salary arbitration from the players has passed, the deadline for second salary arbitration, the team-elected one, is 5 p.m. ET on Monday, July 6, as per NHL.com.

In the ongoing offseason, ahead of the upcoming 2026-27 season, the hearings for salary arbitration are scheduled to happen from July 20 to August 1. Also, each and every player is eligible to sign a contract with their current team at any time before their respective hearing begins.

Will the Florida Panthers be able to sign Akira Schmid to a contract before his salary arbitration hearing? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Written by

Arjun Sharma

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason