Colby Guy
After nearly two years of the Vincent Trocheck trade appearing to be a total loss for the Florida Panthers, Eetu Luostarinen emerged to become a key piece on the team.
On Feb. 24, 2020, the Panthers traded Trocheck to the Carolina Hurricanes for Luostarinen, Erik Haula, Lucas Wallmark and Chase Priskie.
The 2019-20 season was put on pause due to the Covid pandemic less than a month later and both the Panthers and Hurricanes eventually made it to the NHL’s postseason bubble that summer.
Only Haula and Wallmark would dress during Florida’s exit to the New York Islanders in the qualifying round, with the two comibining for just one point in six combined games played.
Trocheck, meanwhile, registered two points in eight games following a first-round exit and a qualifying round victory over the New York Rangers.
Luostarinen, now a restricted free agent, has been the player Florida has gotten the most out of.
Like a number of players on the Panthers, he’s due a new deal.
The two NHL players acquired in the deal — Haula and Wallmark — were allowed to walk as free agents by new GM Bill Zito.
Haula left for the Nashville Predators; Wallmark signed with the Chicago Blackhawks — yet returned in the Brett Connolly trade to play four more games for the Panthers.
He is now in Europe.
Luostarinen, 22 at the time, did end up carving himself out a role in 2020-21 after starting the year in Finland, registering eight points in 44 games.
”He started off so good last year but kind of hit a bump in the road,” coach Andrew Brunette said.
“He played prior to the season and I think he got fatigued. We relied on him a lot early in the year.”
Still, that was only eight points to Trocheck’s 43 points in 47 games that season, plus another three points in nine playoff games that year.
Luostarinen did not dress during the 2021 Playoffs.
It was expected that he would be on the outside looking in to start the 2021-22 season, with Noel Acciari, Anton Lundell, Joe Thornton and Juho Lammikko all vying for a spot down the middle. Only things opened up for Luostarinen.
Lundell missed the majority of camp with an injury and Acciari sustained a shoulder injury in a preseason game against the Lightning. Lammikko was then traded to Vancouver in a deal that brought Olli Juolevi to Florida.
Luostarinen, meanwhile, earned reps on the third line during the preseason after having a strong camp and ran with a spot on the roster.
Of course, Lundell ended up winning that third line center role despite missing most of camp and that ended up working out pretty well.
Thornton, meanwhile, got the nod to start the season on the fourth line while Luostarinen found himself out of the lineup.
The 23-year-old had his number called for the first time in Game No. 3 when the Panthers took on the Colorado Avalanche on Oct. 21.
Luostarinen did not leave the lineup again.
“He’s a really smart two-way player,’’ Brunette said. “This year, I feel comfortable with him on the ice at all times. He is responsible defensively and I think there’s untapped potential with him offensively. We’re still working with him through that. He’s been a real plus for us through the year.”
Luostarinen quickly became one of the most reliable defensive players on the team and strung together a run where he scored four goals in six games from Oct. 27 to Nov. 8.
By the end of November, he had seven goals in 19 games and entrenched himself in a role on the fourth line centering Ryan Lomberg and Patric Hornqvist.
He also found chemistry with Jonathan Huberdeau as one of the team’s most reliable pairs on the penalty kill.
“He’s a smart player,” Huberdeau said. “He plays penalty kill, he’s the kind of guy who is always in the right position defensively and he has a lot of poise with the puck too. He can make some nice plays and he has really stepped up his game.”
While he only added two more goals on the season, he added 16 more assists while continuing to be one of Florida’s most reliable defensive players.
He continued his success with two points in 10 games in the playoffs, scoring one of three goals the Panthers scored in the second round and adding an assist in the Game 6 victory that clinched Florida its first series win since 1996.
And now, he looks to get paid for it.
Luostarinen is a restricted free-agent this offseason and could see his first NHL check north of $1 million per year.
Will he get it from the Panthers?
Probably.
Luostarinein joins Acciari, Mason Marchment, Claude Giroux, Ben Chiarot, Robert Hagg and Priskie, among others, as free-agents Florida needs to make decisions on.
And they only have $3.9 million to work with at the current moment.
Centers with defensive upside have decent value on the open market, but in Luostarinen’s case, he is restricted.
Meanwhile, Florida has precedent for a player that was signed that plays a similar role to him in Acciari.
He joined the Panthers on a three-year deal worth $1.6 million after carving out a penalty-killing forward style role on the Boston Bruins team that made the Stanley Cup Final in 2019.
Acciari, like Luostarinen, spent two full years in the NHL before signing that deal with the Panthers.
For Luostarinen, that number seems like a good benchmark as to what a future contract would look like.
Taking a shorter deal worth less money to help the Panthers survive the $5.3 million dead cap hit Keith Yandle’s buyout left for 2022-23 before negotiating a more lucrative deal following the season could also be on the table.
No matter what his next contract looks like, Luostarinen seemingly looks to be a player that Florida should be looking to keep around long term.
With cap issues looming, he can eventually move up to that third line role he worked in during the preseason, and from time to time during the regular season when Lundell missed time, if the Panthers were to move Sam Bennett to relieve some of their issues.
He is already developing into one of the better defensive forwards in the league, which is something that helped a team whose blueline is heavily offensively minded.
While his offensive production is still not where Trocheck’s is (he just finished a season where he had 51 points in 81 games and added 10 points in 14 playoff games) Luostarinen has changed the complexion of the way that trade will be looked at.
Now, Zito faces a decision on what he wants to do with two parts of it with Priskie hitting unrestricted free agency this offseason.
Florida Panthers Roll Call will be a recurring feature at Florida Hockey Now leading into the start of trade and free-agent season.