Huge Splash in Miami!

2023-06-20

The Florida Panthers had another great season in 2022-23 where they claimed the 6th overall seed in the whole league’s standings. The first round of the playoffs went how they wanted but then, they’ve hit a wall by getting swept by the Toronto Maple Leafs. At this moment, it was clear that PKayne, Florida Panthers GM, wasn’t going to accept this without doing any major changes to the line-up.

We know him as not being really patient when it’s time to shake things up and he didn’t wait long after the Stanley Cup was won to pull the trigger on two major deals.

First of all, past Friday, he shocked the RHL world by trading the man who’s been the Captain of this franchise for many seasons now, John Tavares.  Here’s what PKayne had to day on this trade:

“Before anything, I’d like to thank John for his huge contribution to the team & community throughout the years. He’s been an example to follow for the players in the locker room but also for the kids that looked to him. Good player, even better man. But I feel like we were at a point where we both needed a fresh start. John registered 43 points this season and it’s considerably below our expectations. He wasn’t able to make a difference in the playoffs. And when a player is your captain and he’s earning 9,000,000$ a season, he has to step his game up during crucial moments and he wasn’t able to do that. Maybe being relegated to a 2nd line role was what hurted him and that’s why I think claiming back the 1st line center role in Seattle will make him get back to his old form. We were obviously really pleased to acquire the 10th overall pick in this years draft considering how strong it is, and we’re confident we’ll be able to add a prospect to our organization that will have an impact in a near future. When you have many star players in your team and you have to pay them big dollars, drafting & developing well is a priority if you want to maintain a certain level of depth in your roster. The Kraken were happy with the deal because they got a 1st line center without giving anything from their roster and we were thrilled with the deal too for that reason. That’s what we call a “win-win” trade!”

The second Panthers’ big trade of the offseason was to fill a glaring whole that the organization was going to have someday. Frederik Andersen was a pending UFA and PKayne had no intention to re-sign him even if he did a great job for the team. So he once again surprised the hockey world by trading for young star goaltender Carter Hart on Sunday. The Golden Knights, on their end, acquired prospect & former 1st-rounder Rutger McGroarty, Toronto’s 1st round pick in this years draft (29th), a 4th round pick and a 6th round pick. Read PKayne’s comments below:

“Freddie (Andersen) made a terrific job for us but he’s almost 34 years old and we felt like we needed to go younger in the net. Sammy (Montembeault) made some huge progresses last season and we think he’s gonna be a great goalie going forward but we weren’t ready to give him the full-time starter job and the +-65 starts that goes with it. He’s gonna get many starts and it’s going to be a great battle to watch with Carter Hart who has hell of a pedigree for a goaltender of his age. Hart will obviously be our #1 goalie going forward and if they both are #1 goalies eventually, we’ll make a decision at this time. But Carter is under contract for next season at a 3,000,000$ AAV before becoming an RFA and we’ve just re-signed Monty at a 3,000,000$ AAV for 4 seasons so we’ll have the time we need to evaluate the situation accurately. We feel like we pay a steep price to acquire Carter, mainly McGroarty who’s a great young prospect that we think will become a great top 6 forward but eh, you can’t get a young stud like Hart without paying the price and we were really comfortable with it. The goalie position is not a concern anymore for us and that’s huge win.”

When asked if other moves were coming for the Panthers, PKayne said “Who knows”. He’s known for being a really active GM and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more moves in the upcoming weeks as the Panthers will have to add some forwards depth. We’ll probably have an answer on this upcoming Friday since it’s the RHL Draft!

Thanks for reading,

Mark Kandy
Miami Sun