Panthers enter trade deadline with cap room to make moves
With an array of offseason moves and three trades already in April, Bill Zito has proved a willingness to tinker and he has mostly made his deals without sacrificing nearly any of the Panthers’ future.
In the offseason, the first-year general manager signed supporting players like Carter Verhaeghe, Patric Hornqvist, Radko Gudas and Gustav Forsling to supplement his existing core of potential stars. In the past two weeks, he made two capclearing trades, then traded just a third-round pick to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday to land defenseman Brandon Montour.
He has a chance to make even more before the trade deadline Monday.
“Obviously, you want to try to reward the room, and buttress and support the team,” Zito told the
Miami Herald on Tuesday. “You have to be very careful not to interfere, and only to support and buttress. The team is a delicate thing, so anything we do would obviously be with the goal of supporting the team and keeping the long-term plan in place.”
The series moves this month has already improved the Panthers and left them more than $11 million in cap space, according to CapFriendly, while only sacrificing four players who had combined for four points.
With the trade deadline set for 3 p.m. on Monday, Florida (26-12-4) has the cap flexibility to add almost anyone on the market and a thrilling first three months of the season have set up the Panthers to be buyers — and a current three-game losing streak has exposed their need to make a move to remain in Cup contention.
MORE DEFENSIVE HELP FOR PANTHERS?
Ever since defenseman
Aaron Ekblad went down with a likely season-ending leg fracture last month, Florida has felt a void on defense.
The Panthers are deep enough to get by and Gustav Forsling has performed admirably in his shift up to the top pairing, but fellow defenseman Keith Yandle is struggling, leaving Florida with a void in its top four.
While Montour should slide into one of the top two pairings and help out the power play, the Panthers could still add another and move Forsling into a less substantial role.
A SUPERSTAR SPLASH FOR CATS?
Taylor Hall is, without question, the biggest name on the market heading into the deadline. The Sabres left wing won the Hart
Memorial Trophy in 2018, although he has just 19 points and a plus-minus of negative-21 this season. Whatever team deals for him will be taking a risk, hoping he can recapture his form from the past decade.
While there’s no indication the Panthers are interested, they are looking for more help up front and have plenty of room to take on his $8 million cap hit. Florida signed winger Nikita Gusev to a one-year, $1 million deal Sunday after the New Jersey Devils waived him, but the Panthers still aren’t necessarily done.
“Obviously, it’s a nice position to be in,” Zito said. “We just will evaluate accordingly.”