George Richards, FHN Publisher
With the 2020 NHL Draft finally kicking off Tuesday night, the trade winds are blowing stiff throughout the game and the Florida Panthers should be in the thick of it.
New general manager Bill Zito has been on the job a month and has already made a pair of deals.
Late last month, Zito sent Mike Matheson and Colton Sceviour to Pittsburgh in exchange for veteran winger Patric Hornqvist.
On Friday, defenseman Josh Brown was traded to Ottawa for a fourth-round pick as he was reunited with his former junior coach in Sens’ bench boss D.J. Smith in junior.
Is Zito done dealing?
Probably not.
One could say, he has just gotten started in retooling — not necessarily rebuilding — the Panthers roster.
Last week, he told FloridaHockeyNow.com he would look at every option available to him to get the Panthers on track.
“I am going to be as aggressive as I need to be,” Zito said.
“That’s my job, right? I have to be thorough and inquisitive and make sure that all options that are available to improve the Florida Panthers are pursued and investigated.”
Zito goes into draft week with 12 players under NHL contract; the Panthers, according to CapFriendly.com, are close to $22 million under the $81.5 million salary cap.
The Panthers, if they choose to be, can be players both in the trade circles as well as free agency.
That market opens Friday at noon.
When it comes to draft picks, Florida has the No. 12 selection in the first round and a total of eight picks in the seven rounds — with six of its slots in the top four rounds.
The first round will be held Tuesday night with Rounds 2-7 coming on Wednesday. Zito has said he would be willing to move the top pick in the right situation.
Unlike last summer, teams do not have the ability to (legally) speak to pending free agents before the market opens Friday at noon.
Disregarding the free agency plans for right now, lets look at what the Panthers currently have and what they may (or may not) be willing to part with as trade talks heat up across North America.
A King’s Ransom: Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Aaron Ekblad
The Panthers’ core is down to three, what with Vincent Trocheck, Nick Bjugstad and Matheson all dealt since the start of last season.
Teams are asking Zito about the availability of his top three players and it would take a haul to get any of them out of South Florida.
And for good reason.
All three are under contract for at least the next two seasons (Huberdeau is signed for the next three, Ekblad for five) at a reasonable term.
Ekblad is the highest paid of the trio at a cap hit of $7.5 million and is the team’s top defenseman.
Barkov and Huberdeau each come in just under $6 million per season and are the team’s two leading scorers.
You want ‘em? It is going to cost a lot.
Staying Put (no-trade clause and the like): Sergei Bobrovsky, Keith Yandle, Patric Hornqvist
Hornqvist just got here and Zito (who saw the hard-nosed forward beat up on his Blue jackets over the years) says the Panthers are going to rely quite a bit on the veteran moving forward.
Bobrovsky just completed the first year of a seven-year, $70-million deal. He has a no-trade and, well, with the glut of goalies on the market this offseason there wouldn’t be much of a market for him regardless of how this past season went.
Bob and the Panthers are going to have to make this marriage work.
Yandle also has a no-trade and has given no indication he would be willing to waive it.
Although he has been relegated to a bottom-pairing role in 5-on-5 play, Yandle brings plenty of offensive to his position and can move the puck.
It would be surprising to see him anywhere but with the Panthers next season.
Could be in play: Noel Acciari, Brett Connolly, Frank Vatrano, Anton Stralman, MacKenzie Weegar, Chris Driedger, Henrik Borgstrom
Acciari lit it up in his first season with the Panthers, obliterating his previous career highs by scoring 20 goals.
He has two years left on his contract, makes $1.7 million and has shown he can play up and down the lineup.
Teams would love to have him. The Panthers are happy they do, but who knows?
Connolly scored 19 goals in the first year of his four-year deal and could draw interest from teams who lost out on him last summer.
If Florida loses two of its big free agents in Evgenii Dadonov and/or Mike Hoffman, they may need some of his scoring.
Same goes for Vatrano who has two years remaining on his extension he signed in 2019.
Vatrano had a streaky season and did not hold onto his spot on the top line upon the team starting play in Toronto and ended up being a healthy scratch against the Islanders.
Florida loves his speed, hopes he returns to the production he gave in 2018-19 when he scored 24 goals.
Stralman played in every game for Florida after an injury-plagued 2018-19 with the Lightning. He fit well into a second pairing spot and looked to have good rapport with Riley Stillman late in the season.
Zito is intent on fixing Florida’s defense and, while the veteran Stralman wasn’t the problem, he is owed $11 million over the next two years. The thought could be that money could be spend elsewhere.
Which is where we stand with Weegar.
When healthy, he has been a solid defenseman with a little scoring touch.
Weegar already took the Panthers to arbitration once and Zito sounds like he expects another trip. Weegar said he would like a long-term deal with the Panthers but do they feel the same?
We’ll find out soon enough.
When it comes to Driedger, it does not appear trading him makes much sense. Florida has him under contract for another year at a most-affordable $850,000. But he will be UFA after that.
Driedger’s career trajectory has been trending up the past two seasons and last year was his NHL breakout.
His value, to the Panthers, would never be higher if a team came calling. But as we noted earlier, there will be a lot of goalies available to teams this offseason.
Borgstrom is an interesting case. He is also RFA and there is hope he is still young enough at 23 he will be productive either at center or on the wing.
Borgstrom did not hold onto his job as Florida’s third-line center coming out of camp, had a disappointing AHL season before picking it up toward the end before being hurt.
His name has popped up in trade rumors before so it wouldn’t be surprising to see a team make Zito an offer for the talented former first-round pick.
On Sunday, HIFK announced it had signed Borgstrom for the upcoming 2020-21 season. He can return to the Panthers if a new contract is reached.
No reason to move (the RFAs): Dryden Hunt, Aleksi Saarela, Dominic Toninato, Lucas Wallmark
All three players bring different things to the table and probably offer more of an upside to the Panthers than what they could bring back in trade.
With the trade of Sceviour, Florida is going to need someone to fill his fourth-line and penalty killer role and it’s likely one of these four does it.