Panthers complete unlikely transformation into destination team with Claude Giroux trade
On the day Bill Zito took over as the general manager of the Florida Panthers, Claude Giroux and his Philadelphia Flyers were busy figuring out what sort of adjustments they needed to make before Game 6 of their second-round series against the New York Islanders.
The Panthers had long been eliminated from the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs — they were ousted by the Islanders in the qualifying road, with the playoffs expanded because of the COVID-19 pandemic — and their new general manager faced a tall task. Florida had been one of the last 16 teams standing just twice since 2000 and hadn’t won a postseason series since 1996, and the supporting cast around Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov and Co. was in shambles. In his first offseason, Zito would add 10 new skaters to the NHL roster and none of them qualified among the most high-profile free agents available. Who would have wanted to come play for the Panthers, anyway?
Less than two years later, Giroux did. The Flyers — the team he played 1,000 games for and captained for more than nine years — are maybe the worst team in the league and Florida is on top of the Eastern Conference. A few months ago, it became clear Philadelphia wasn’t going to make the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs and Giroux, in the final season of an eight-year contract, decided he was ready to move on. With a no-movement clause, he could effectively choose his destination, as long as the trade offer was enough to entice the Flyers.
He chose the Panthers.
“Florida was at the top of my list,” the All-Star forward said. “If there was a team I wanted to go to, it was here.”
On Saturday, the Panthers sent right wing Owen Tippett, a 2023 third-round pick and a 2024 first-round pick to Philadelphia to land Giroux. It was the biggest deal of the trade deadline and, Giroux said, it only happened because Giroux believed in Florida (42-16-4) to win the Stanley Cup.
“That’s the reason I’m here,” Giroux said. “I’m here to win.”
Although their only move Monday was to pick up a sixth-round pick and a right wing prospect Egor Korshkov as part of a three-team trade, the Panthers were one of the most active teams leading up to the deadline, beyond just the Giroux acquisition. Florida also traded a 2023 first-round pick to the Montreal Canadiens for defenseman Ben Chiarot on Wednesday, traded away winger Frank Vatrano in a separate cap-clearing deal Wednesday and sent a sixth-round pick to the Buffalo Sabres for defenseman Andrew Hagg on Sunday.
The Panthers went into Monday knowing they had filled basically all their needs, although they remained open to additional moves, with nearly $5.5 million in cap space available. Zito said they kept talking to teams throughout the day, but the right move never materialized, so they stood pat.
They had already done plenty, anyway. Giroux is the biggest prize anyone landed this week.
He was an All-Star for the seventh time this season and the Most Valuable Player of the 2022 NHL All-Star Game last month. He has 18 goals and 24 assists in 57 games this season, and 900 points in his career. As recently as 2018, he was a true superstar, finishing fourth in Hart Memorial Trophy voting.
Now 34, he’s not good enough to single-handedly carry an awful team like Philadelphia, but he can still be one of the best complementary players on one of the best teams in the league.
On Sunday, interim coach Andrew Brunette said he’ll likely start Giroux off on the wing, playing either next to star center Aleksander Barkov on the first line or next to All-Star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau on the second. On Monday, Zito delved specifically into the potential fit next to Barkov, whose top line hasn’t had a consistent right wing all year. It seems likely Giroux, who was one of the best centers of the 2010s and now mostly plays left wing, will start out playing next to one of the league’s best current centers.
“He’s a unique player because he can play a first-line role with Sasha where he complements Sasha,” Zito said. “He’s the type of player that allows Barkov to be Barkov. He doesn’t have to help Claude Giroux. Maybe Giroux helps Barkov.”
Giroux also brought up the idea of playing next to Barkov on Monday — “If I have a chance to play on his line,” he said, “I’m sure it’ll be like the first time going to school” — and gave a very obvious reason as to why Florida was at the top of his list: He has watched the team play, both as an opponent and on television.
“It was pretty annoying to play the Panthers,” he said. “When we were kind of out of the playoffs, that’s when I started thinking, Where could I go? Where would be a good fit for me to go and play, and win the Cup? I was just looking at all the teams and there was just something about Florida. Every time I was tuning into a game, I just liked the way they played.”
Zito, as the spokesperson for the Panthers on Monday, tried to sum up what it meant for a player like Giroux, who spent his entire career in one of the NHL’s premier markets, would want to come play hockey in South Florida.
He deferred credit, of course — “They didn’t come here to hang out with me,” he joked — and passed it all off to the players. Zito helped put together one of the league’s most stacked rosters, but they’re the reason the Panthers are title contenders.
They’re still just contenders, though. They still haven’t won a playoff series since 1996.
Giroux decided to come anyway.
“It’s flattering,” Zito said. “We just have to keep working and remembering that that’s nice to hear, but we’ve only won two playoff games, so we have to keep building.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2022 at 5:08 PM.
