Late on June 30th, news broke that the Florida Panthers were to sign stud franchise defenseman Aaron Ekblad to an 8 year $7.5 Million deal beginning on July 1st, 2017. Ekblad has had 75 points in his career including 36 last year. He was the Number 1 overall pick in 2014 and won the Calder in 2014-15 as rookie of the year. This is a major signing as Ekblad has a bright future ahead of him. He has played in 159 career games with 6 career postseason games. He should also be fully recovered from the illegal hit by Matt Hendricks in which he seemed to struggle a bit after returning from injury. I’m excited to see what number 5 will do in the future.