NHL Trade Deadline: Does Seth Jones Fit with the Florida Panthers?

The NHL Trade Deadline is fast approaching, and Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Seth Jones is one of the biggest names who appears to be available.

The Florida Panthers have been linked to Jones through the rumor mill, although it is going to take some serious moves to make a deal like this possible.

If it can be done at all.

Jones is not your typical NHL Trade Deadline candidate.

He signed an eight-year contract extension worth $76 million with the Blackhawks not long after being acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets in a pre-trade blockbuster in 2021.

This was the draft that Florida pulled off a deal with Buffalo for Sam Reinhart. 

So, Jones is locked in with a contract that runs for five more seasons at a big cap number ($9.5 million per) — not the kind of player usually dealt at the trade deadline.

We often talk about acquiring players with term, but this is certainly out of the ordinary.

For context, Florida has two players (Sasha Barkov and Sergei Bobrovsky) making $10 million, and one (Matthew Tkachuk) making $9.5 million.

Jones’ contract runs concurrent with Barkov and Tkachuk; Bobrovsky has one year remaining on his deal.

How, then, could the Panthers pull something like this off?

UPDATE: They did.