According to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff the Florida Panthers could be a team to watch as their season continues to widdle away. 4-6-0 in their last 10 games, the club now sits fifth in the Atlantic Division with an 18-19-4 record. A franchise that was coming off a fantastic 2021-22 campaign isn’t playing up to the level they would like and the NHL insider suggests a lot of it has to do with an unbalanced roster.
The team is struggling following a massive trade that saw them send Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar to the Calgary Flames for Matthew Tkachuk. Tkachuk is doing his part with 20 goals and 49 points in 38 games, but the rest of the roster has seen their production take a downturn. They’ll need to make a move and if their season doesn’t turn around in a hurry, they could be sellers heading into this season’s NHL Trade Deadline.
Seravalli explained, “I think their key objective for the deadline is to set themselves up for the summer. They’ve essentially got $12 million coming off the books between dead cap money and also the deal for Patric Hornqvist, which expires.” He adds that they could choose to overhaul their roster and that means potentially trading Sam Reinhart or Sam Bennett. The target would be a top-flight defenseman to play with Aaron Ekblad.
In a recent article, he explains:
They don’t have a first-round draft pick until 2026 and as last season showed when they were involved with sending Max Domi to a potential Eastern Conference playoff foe, they could be the middleman in an attempt to recoup as many bullets as possible in the Draft.
As for which teams are interested in Bennett or Reinhart, that remains to be seen. There are plenty of teams that would kick tires but cap space is certainly going to be an issue. Bennett has two more seasons remaining after this one at a cost of $4.425 million, while Reinhart is a $6.5 million cap hit for this and next season.
The Seattle Kraken are a team that can afford to take on contracts, as are the Arizona Coyotes. Both could use a couple of strong forwards and the Kraken could be buyers are the trade deadline.
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