NHL trade deadline tracker: Will the underachieving Panthers buy or sell (or neither)?
It’s deadline day in the NHL and it could be an interesting one for the Florida Panthers.
It also might not.
The Panthers (30-27-6) are in a strange position ahead of the trade deadline: After winning the Presidents’ Trophy last year, they understandably expected to be one of the best teams in the league once again and instead sit outside the postseason field with less than 20 games to go.
Panthers’ immediate future gets murky with another bad loss on eve of trade deadline
General manager Bill Zito will have some tough decisions to make: Is it time to punt on this season and trade away some players to recoup some future assets, or will Florida try to load up again to make the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs and improve its roster?
Stay tuned throughout the day for live updates, rumors, news and analysis until the 3 p.m. deadline.
3 p.m.: The 3 p.m. deadline has passed and the Panthers still have not made a move.
It is possible word of a move could trickle out in the next hour. If there is none, Florida is the only team not to make a trade since the start of the new year.
2 p.m.: With an hour left until the trade deadline, Radko Gudas remains the most likely Panther to move.
Florida is listening offers for the defenseman, TheFourthPeriod.com reported.
Some noise getting louder around South Florida that the #TimeToHunt are taking calls on D Radko Gudas. Tough, physical defenceman who comes with a $2.5M cap hit and can become a UFA this July.
— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) March 3, 2023
Teams are also inquiring about Sam Reinhart, but the Panthers are more reluctant to move the forward, keeping a multi-year outlook.
Gudas will be a free agent in the offseason. Reinhart has one year left on his deal.
1 p.m.: Even with the Panthers’ playoff chances dwindling, Matthew Tkachuk doesn’t sound like he wants this group to sell off pieces.
“I’m very confident and really, really enjoy being around everybody on this team,” the All-Star right wing said.
Tkachuk, who came to Florida in exchange for two stars and a first-round pick in the offseason, is having one of the great seasons in franchise history, yet the Panthers very well may miss out on the Stanley Cup playoffs. At the same time, he’s locked up until 2030, which gives him and Florida a chance to take the long view.
Noon: The Panthers are holding a very light practice in Sunrise. Not many players are expected to skate.
Center Sam Bennett is the first one out on the ice, no longer wearing the yellow non-contact jersey he has sported for the last few weeks while he has been sidelined. Florida is hopeful he’ll be able to play Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins at FLA Live Arena.
Zito is set to speak once the trade deadline passes. A few players will talk this afternoon, too.
11 a.m.: What’s the market like for defensemen right now?
Jakob Chychrun got the Arizona Coyotes got a first- and two second-round picks from the Ottawa Senators.
Shayne Gostisbehere got the Coyotes a third-round pick from the Carolina Hurricanes.
Filip Hronek got the Detroit Red Wings a first- and second-round pick from the Vancouver Canucks.
Luke Schenn got the Canucks a third-round pick from the Toronto Maple Leafs.
This isn’t all of them, but a good look at what the value has been for defensive help in the last week.
10 a.m.: Defenseman Radko Gudas is understandably at the center at most of the Panthers’ trade speculation, but he’s not the only impending free agent who could help another contender.
Forward Eric Staal and defenseman Marc Staal are both set to be free agents, too, and have been varying degrees of valuable for Florida. The 36-year-old defenseman is playing top-four minutes on defense and could provide some depth and veteran experience to a contender, particularly a young one. The 38-year-old forward has been one of the biggest surprise of the year for the Panthers, scoring 12 goals and recording 14 points all since the start of the new year.
Forwards Colin White and Zac Dalpe, defenseman Casey Fitzgerald and goaltender Alex Lyon will also be free agents this offseason.
9 a.m.: Their 2-1 loss to the Nashville Predators on Thursday in Sunrise could be the nudge the Panthers need to move into the seller category on deadline day.
Florida’s chances to make the Stanley Cup playoffs are down to 26 percent, putting them behind the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders, and just barely ahead of the Buffalo Sabres.
Don’t expect any drastic changes, but moving Radko Gudas makes a ton of sense. The defenseman is 32 and in the final year of his deal.
8 a.m.: It has been a wild month-plus across the NHL. Already, teams have traded 12 first-round picks since the start of 2023 and made more than two dozen trades in the last two weeks alone. All-Stars like Bo Horvat and Vladimir Tarasenko have moved, and so have other stars like Patrick Kane and Timo Meier.
The Panthers have sat it all out. It’s what their precarious position on the fringe of the Stanley Cup playoffs have necessitated, but they didn’t really have much of a choice, anyway: Florida doesn’t own any of its next three first-round picks and doesn’t have any top-40 prospects, according to TheHockeyWriters.com’s midseason rankings.
It’s going to make any blockbuster deals — like the one the Panthers made to bring Claude Giroux to South Florida last season — impossible, although the Panthers could always opt to be on the other end of one of those. Centers Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart are both drawing interest from contenders across the league, according to various reports. Still, it seems unlikely Florida will part with either, as both are under team control beyond this year, meaning they can both help the Panthers try to get back to the Cup playoffs this year and be part of a more serious Stanley Cup chase next season.
The more likely player to move — if Florida opts to do some selling — is defenseman Radko Gudas, who’s in the final year of his deal. Although Gudas probably won’t fetch a first-round pick, he would help the Panthers recoup some of the future assets they’ve spent in recent years.
If it does some buying, Florida will be on the lookout for players under contract beyond this season, although the Panthers are projected to have more than $11 million in cap space this offseason to potentially keep a new addition in the fold beyond this year. The Panthers’ most valuable trade chips, excluding players on the current roster, are prospect Mackie Samoskevich, second-round picks in 2023 and 2025, and third-round picks in 2024 and 2025.
