Florida Panthers Claim Tobias Bjornfot Off Waivers

The Florida Panthers claimed Tobias Bjornfot off waivers from the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday morning.

Bjornfot, 22, played two games for the Golden Knights before missing most of the season with an undisclosed injury.

“Tobias is a great professional with an extremely strong work ethic,” general manager Bill Zito said in a statement. “We are excited for him to get to work within the Panthers organization.”

He also played one game for Vegas prior to being claimed off waivers from the Los Angeles Kings and five games for their Henderson Silver Knights in the AHL this season, not recording a point.

Bjornfot was placed on injured reserve in January and has been a healthy scratch since being activated on Feb. 15.

He last played for the Golden Knights on Jan. 10 against the Colorado Avalanche.

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The left-shot defenseman previously spent parts of five seasons with the Kings, where he scored one goal and 15 points in 117 games.

He is under contract through the 2024-25 season with an annual cap hit of $775,000.

Bjornfot will be a restricted free agent at the expiry of his contract.

He was Los Angeles’ 22nd overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft.

Bjornfot was the third player the Panthers acquired ahead of the NHL’s trade deadline, joining Vladimir Tarasenko (acquired via trade from Ottawa on Wednesday) and Kyle Okposo (acquired via trade from Buffalo on Friday).

Florida has just over $700,000 left in salary cap space after making those three roster moves.

The NHL trade deadline is on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.

UPDATE: The Panthers acquired goaltender Magnus Hellberg from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for minor league goalie Ludovic Waeber and a conditional 2025 seventh-round draft pick.

Hellberg played three games for the Penguins in 2023-24, recording a 1-0-0 record, .922 save percentage and 2.50 goals against average. He has also played in 19 American Hockey League (AHL) games with Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, going  9-8-2, .905 save percentage and 2.92 goals against average.

This is a developing story which will be updated once new information becomes available.

ON DECK

CALGARY FLAMES @ FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Saturday, 4 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida; ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
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• This Season (Flames Lead 1-0) — At Calgary: Flames 3, Panthers 1 (Dec. 18). At Florida: Saturday.
• Last Season: Calgary Won 2-0
• All-Time Regular Season Series: Calgary leads 25-11-3, 3 ties