Florida Panthers Deadline Review

It’s been a crazy week in the RHL as the trade deadline was looming and teams were actively looking to improve their teams. Once again, Florida Panthers GM PKayne was part of the action as he pulled the trigger on three separate trades that considerably improve his team: 2 improving the Panthers, 1 improving the Checkers.

PKayne had one really good weapon working for him: He kept his team with a 10,000,000$ cap space for most of the season which resulted in a lot of accrued cap space to work with at the trade deadline. So targeting high AAV’s player was an option for him, which wasn’t the case for a vast majority of GM’s.

And he used that weapon accurately. The first trade was concluded during the night as PKayne was working hard to land a piece that would improve his top 6 forwards. He called his division-fellow Stu, GM of the Buffalo Sabres, to inquired about David Krejci who was a pending UFA with a 7,000,000$ cap hit. They went back and forth but ended up being both happy with the deal as Krejci became a Panther in exchange of a 2025 3rd round pick and a 2025 6th round pick. No money was retained in that deal since the Panthers had plenty of accrued cap space to take on Krejci’s AAV.

Here's what PKayne had to say on that trade: “You know, we weren’t in a spot where we HAD to make some deals to add to our team. We were in the market to add 1 or 2 forwards but we didn’t have to. We already trusted our guys in place but we felt like if the price was right, it would be a good idea to bring some more leadership and experience and of course some more firepower too. Krejci provided a good mix of all we needed and we were able to agree with the Sabres on a price that made sense for both of us. So we pulled the trigger”.

After a short night of sleep, PKayne called the Golden Knights to see if there was a fit there. They once again went back and forth dealing and ended up targeting Jason Zucker who’s also providing some leadership and offensive tools. They traded Jeff Carter (who has one more year on his contract at a 1,500,000$ AAV) and NCAA prospect Will Vote (son of hardcore pro-democracy parents). PKayne felt like it was once again a good fit since Vegas really liked Vote and Carter was the odd man out in Florida after this trade so it was a win-win situation where the player could continue to play, VGK was getting a player at a cheap AAV that could fill a bottom 6 role and the Panthers were upgrading their forward corp.

Last and probably the least trade saw the Panthers acquiring Lias Andersson (and a 5th round pick) in return of NCAA prospect Luke Mittelstadt. The Panthers were looking to add some offence to their farm team too since they’re currently sitting at the 2nd seed of the overall standings and are, once again, looking to win it all. They’ve already won it in 2020-21 and 2021-22 and are hopeful they’ll get a good run this season too.

Rumours are saying PKayne was close to making 1 or 2 more moves but couldn’t get to the finish line. They’ll be an interesting team to follow this offseason, that’s for sure!

Mark Kandy
Miami Sun