Summer of Changes in Florida

In his post-season press conference, GM PKayne made it clear that his team’s record this past season was unacceptable and that changes were coming. He didn’t take too long before getting to work as he made his first trade on June 1st and completed 4 significant trades in the offseason.

It all started when Mathew Barzal was put on the block by the Buffalo Sabres. In a league where the salary cap is a huge factor, PKayne saw an opportunity there as Barzal was on an already-retained salary of 6,650,000$ for the next 7 seasons. As good as Barzal is, having him under this contract on the long term was huge for the Panthers asset management. Of course, trading away Gabe Perreault and Joshua Roy (and a 2nd rounder) wasn’t an easy decision for PKayne but like he said, the Panthers are in win-now mode so trading away good young prospects to get immediate help made ton of sense. So after all, it wasn’t easy but it was still a no-brainer for the Panthers.

Victor Hedman was a pending UFA and got traded at the deadline in exchange for David Reinbacher and a 1st round pick in 2026 draft. Of course, losing him on the blue line would be hurting the Panthers but they had to choose between him and Josh Morrissey and considering their ages and how Morrissey has become a bonified #1 defenceman in the league, it was also kind of an easy decision. PKayne had to find someone to fill the #3D role and that’s why he quickly picked up the phone when Thomas Chabot was put on the block. He found an agreement with Nashville, sending their way a 2nd round pick and a 3rd round pick as well as prospect Anthony Romani. Chabot was also on a great contract (4 x 6,000,000$).

And then, the draft occured. It was pretty well known across the league that the Cats were shopping Trevor Zegras. They still liked his potential but thought it was maybe time for him to get a fresh start somewhere else. There was no room for him on the top 6 with the forwards already in the team (plus Beckett Sennecke coming soon). They were trying to trade up their 6th overall pick for a while. They are known for trading up on draft day to pick their guy. And clearly, their guy was Caleb Desnoyers. So they found a fit with the Boston Bruins, trading Trevor Zegras and the 6th overall pick for the 3rd overall pick and the 20th overall pick. Some thought the Panthers paid a hefty price there. But PKayne was good with it. Like I previously said, the Panthers were shopping Zegras for a while and the offers weren’t really good… so Zegras’ market value wasn’t really high. With that trade going through, they were able to pick Caleb Desnoyers with the 3rd overall pick and Braeden Cootes with the 20th overall pick. Both are great prospects at C with good skills, defensively responsible and great individuals.

In their last trade of the summer (yet), the Panthers gave a 3rd rounder to the Flames in exchange for young C Alex Turcotte. Turcotte is a former 5th overall pick, now 24 years old. Of course, it would be surprising from him to reach his full potential but he still showed some improvements last season and could become a really good 3rd liner. For a 3rd round pick, the gamble is definitely a good one.

Great improvements were already made through trades and the RHL Draft but the team still had holes to fill. They really needed a RHD that can play on the 2nd pair. They aggressively pursued 6’8 RHD Tyler Myers and he accepted a 6 year @ 5,000,000$ AAV deal with them. They also signed Adam Henrique to be their 3rd line C and Alex Lyon to be their back-up goaltender. They also made some depth signings for the Charlotte Checkers: Andrew Poturalski, Dustin Tokarski, Oliver Kylington, Chris Terry, Kurtis MacDermid and Tobie Bisson. They also brought back Ryan Reaves and Martin Frk.

So for now, the team looks pretty set but another trade could still happen. We never know. For now, the starting line-up should look like this if there are no surprises in training camp (of course, lines aren’t set in stone):

A.Panarin – N.MacKinnon – J.Eberle
T.Stützle – M.Barzal – C.Caufield
F.Zetterlund – A.Henrique – J.Anderson
M.Foligno – J.Harkins – A.Turcotte

J.Morrissey – C.Makar
T.Chabot – T.Myers
J.Oleksiak – T.Emberson

S.Montembeault – A.Lyon

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more developments!

Mark Kandy
Miami Sun