NHL trade deadline tracker: Panthers add late pick, prospect on quiet deadline day
The Florida Panthers made one of the biggest trades in franchise history Saturday when they dealt for Claude Giroux, but they still may not be done wheeling and dealing ahead of the NHL trade deadline.
With Stanley Cup aspirations and nearly $5.5 million in cap space, the Panthers are in position to potentially make another move or two Monday before the 3 p.m. deadline.
We’ll have live updates for you on Florida’s activity throughout the day:
7:00 p.m.: The Panthers did make one move after all, helping to facilitate the Columbus Blue Jackets’ trade with the Carolina Hurricanes.
In the trade, the Hurricanes got versatile forward Max Domi from the Blue Jackets, but couldn’t afford to take on his full contract, so Florida served as a middleman to make the deal happen. Carolina retained 50 percent of Domi’s contract — the maximum allowed — and the Panthers retained 50 percent of what was left. For their help, Florida picked up the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 2022 sixth-round pick and right wing prospect Egor Korshkov.
3:15 p.m.: The Panthers didn’t make any moves ahead of the deadline Monday.
General manager Bill Zito said Florida was open to making a trade, but there was nothing specifically he was trying to do and the right opportunity never presented itself.
3 p.m.: The trade deadline is here. Some trades might have happened and not leaked out yet, but, as of now, nothing for the Panthers.
Defenseman Jakob Chychrun, the Boca Raton native frequently linked to Florida this year, is staying put with the Arizona Coyotes.
2:50 p.m.: The New York Rangers are trading for Andrew Copp. The versatile forward had been linked to the Panthers earlier in the day.
Copp had 35 points in 56 points for the Winnipeg Jets this season, playing all over their top three lines. He would’ve been a depth addition for Florida, probably on one of the bottom two lines.
1:55 p.m.: Claude Giroux just spoke for close to 15 minutes about his trade to the Panthers and made it clear Florida was his top choice.
The All-Star forward had a no-movement clause with the Philadelphia Flyers and wouldn’t say whether he would’ve waived it for other teams, but said Florida was the “top of my list.”
“If there was a team I wanted to go to, it was here,” he said. “It was pretty annoying to play the Panthers, but I’ll be on their side now. It’s definitely really exciting.”
The Panthers popped on his radar as a potential destination this year, he said. He expected Philadelphia to contend for the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs, so he never thought about playing in Florida, even after the Panthers spent most of last season near the top of the standings.
As the Flyers tumbled out of playoff contention this year, Giroux started thinking about where he’d like to be traded and kept coming back to Florida, he said. The 34-year-old Canadian buys into the Panthers as a Cup contender, but he also just loved to watch them play. Now he gets to be part of it.
“The team looks great right now,” Giroux said.
1:10 p.m.: Claude Giroux is here at FLA Live Arena. The All-Star forward will speak for the first time as a Panther in the next few minutes.
12:15 p.m.: Claude Giroux is set to arrive at FLA Live Arena in the next hour or so after the Panthers traded for the All-Star forward Saturday.
Florida is slated to introduce Giroux around 1:30 p.m.
11:15 a.m.: The Minnesota Wild has joined the NHL’s Stanley Cup arms race.
The Wild is trading for star goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury from the Chicago Blackhawks. Fleury won the Vezina Trophy last year with the Vegas Golden Knights. Minnesota has tailed off a bit since a hot start to the year, but is still solidly in playoff position.
11 a.m.: The Panthers still haven’t made a move today, but the expectation is they will.
General manager Bill Zito does not want to let an opportunity to improve — whether it’s short-term or long-term — go to waste.
10 a.m.: The most likely course of action for the Panthers on Monday might be to serve as a third team to facilitate trades.
With nearly $5.5 million in cap space, Florida is a place where teams can offload contracts to make cap math work.
There a couple ways this could work. The simplest is for the Panthers to serve as the landing spot for a team trying to dump a contract while they acquire another player. Another, perhaps more likely path, is for Florida to be middleman and retain salary.
As an example, look to last year, when the Tampa Bay Lightning acquired defenseman David Savard, even though it couldn’t afford him. To make the math work, the Columbus Blue Jackets retained half of Savard’s salary, then traded him to the Detroit Red Wings, who retained half of what was left. The Lightning then technically acquired Savard from the Red Wings in exchange for a fourth-round pick.
The Panthers can be a middleman this year.
9 a.m.: The Panthers have been busy in the last week and most of their biggest moves are probably out of the way.
They kicked off the week Wednesday by trading winger Frank Vatrano to the New York Rangers and landing defenseman Ben Chiarot in exchange for a first-round pick. On Saturday, they reeled in Giroux, sending another first-round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers to acquire the All-Star forward. They kept dealing Sunday, too, and traded for defenseman Robert Hagg from the Buffalo Sabres.
An injury to Aaron Ekblad, however, has opened up even more possibilities for Florida. The Panthers placed the star defenseman on long-term injured reserve, giving them almost $5.5 million in cap space to work with ahead of the deadline.
Could Florida look for even more defensive depth to make up for Ekblad’s absence? Will the Panthers try to consolidate more of their forward depth and find another player to compete for a top-six or -nine spot in the lineup? Do they feel like they need a third goaltender with Jonas Johansson on injured reserve?
The most logical course of action might be to absorb some unwanted contracts into their newfound cap space and try to pick up some draft picks in the process. In the last year, Florida traded away its first-round picks in the 2022, 2023 and 2024 NHL Entry Drafts.
This story was originally published March 21, 2022 at 9:00 AM.
