SUNRISE, Fla.\u202f\u2013\u202fFlorida\u00a0Panthers President of Hockey Operations and General Manager\u00a0Bill Zito\u00a0announced today that the club has agreed to\u00a0terms with defenseman\u00a0Radko Gudas\u00a0on a six-year contract\u00a0commencing\u00a0in 2026-27.<\/p>\n
\u201cRadko is\u00a0a proven,\u00a0experienced\u00a0leader\u00a0and\u00a0a\u00a0strong\u00a0reliable defensive presence for our blueline,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Zito. \u201cHe 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\u00a0thrilled to welcome Radko and his family back to South Florida.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gudas, 36,\u00a0skated in\u00a056 games with the Anaheim Ducks\u00a0in 2025-26, logging 13 points (2-11-13)\u00a0and leading the Ducks blueliners with 164 hits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 6-foot, 208-pound native of Prague, Czechia has skated\u00a0in 885 career NHL games between Anaheim (2023-24 to 2025-26), Florida (2020-21 to 2022-23), the Washington Capitals (2019-20), Philadelphia Flyers (2015-16 to 2018-19) and Tampa Bay Lightning (2012-13 to 2014-15),\u00a0registering 211 points (42-169-211), a plus-89 rating\u00a0and\u00a01,124 penalty minutes.\u00a0Since his first full NHL season in 2013-14, Gudas leads all NHLers with\u00a03,135 hits.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Previously with\u00a0the Panthers from 2020-21 to 2022-23,\u00a0Gudas compiled 44 points (7-37-44) and a plus-47 rating in 203 regular season games while recording\u00a0917 hits, which still stand\u00a0as the\u00a0third-most hits in\u00a0Panthers\u00a0history since hits began being tracked in 2007-08.\u00a0He also posted seven points (1-6-7) over\u00a037 Stanley Cup Playoff games with Florida, helping the club capture a Presidents\u2019 Trophy in 2021-22 and reach the 2023 Stanley Cup Final.\u00a0He led all NHLers in hits in his first two\u00a0season\u00a0in South Florida, posting 250 in 2020-21 and 355 in 2021-22. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Gudas\u00a0skated in 206 American Hockey League (AHL) games between the Syracuse Crunch (2012-13) and Norfolk Admirals (2010-11 to 2011-12), producing 57 points (15-42-57). He helped Norfolk capture\u00a0a Calder\u00a0Cup championship in 2011-12\u00a0and was named to the AHL All-Star Game in 2012-13.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the international\u00a0stage,\u00a0Gudas earned a gold medal\u00a0representing\u00a0Czechia at the 2024 IIHF World Championship, where he was voted a top three player on his team and served as an alternate captain.\u00a0He\u00a0was also an alternate captain for\u00a0Czechia at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gudas was originally selected by Tampa Bay in the third round (66th\u00a0overall) of the 2010 NHL Draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n
2026-27 Florida Panthers Territory Memberships are available now! Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to learn more. For all the latest in\u00a0Panthers\u00a0news, concerts and events at\u00a0Amerant\u00a0Bank Arena & FTL War Memorial, sign up for\u00a0’93 Society newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and receive information straight to your inbox. Visit\u00a0FloridaPanthers.com<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0SeatGeek.com<\/a>\u00a0for all ticketing needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SUNRISE, Fla.\u202f\u2013\u202fFlorida\u00a0Panthers President of Hockey Operations and General Manager\u00a0Bill Zito\u00a0announced today that the club has agreed to\u00a0terms with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-326967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}