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March 5, 2026
Florida panthers nhl trade

 The Florida Panthers have been buyers at the NHL Trade Deadline the past couple of years, but that hasn’t always been the case.

Florida has had pretty good success with their trade deadline acquisitions of late.

Seth Jones and Brad Marchand, acquired last year, probably rank among the best deadline acquisitions of all time. The two were instrumental in Florida’s second run to the Stanley Cup.


The year prior, Kyle Okposo and Vladimir Tarasenko were strong additions as well.

In 2022, the eventual Presidents’ Trophy winners made the biggest splash at the deadline, getting Claude Giroux and Ben Chiarot. Those turned out to be expensive additions.

But, Florida has certainly been on the other side of the trade deadline equation — as it is this year.

Only, things are a bit different than in past years when the Panthers were sellers because they were desperate to turn their franchise around.

Looking back, the Panthers have had two big selloffs over the past 15 years — but for different reasons.

One was a pure fire sale; the second was an act of desperation. 

In 2011, the Panthers were still bottom feeders in the NHL and had not been to the playoffs since 2000.

Dale Tallon, in his first season running the team, was trying to assemble a quality team.

In 2010, he drafted Erik Gudbranson, Nick Bjugstad, and Quinton Howden. In 2011, after a mass selloff, the Panthers drafted Jonathan Huberdeau and Vincent Trocheck.

At the 2011 Trade Deadline, Florida was in last place in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference and the Panthers went into a purge.

In most of the transactions, Florida received low-round draft picks and/or minor league players in return. It was a matter of acquiring value for players who didn’t figure in Tallon’s rebuild.

Radek Dvorak, who was the last remaining player from the 1996 run to the Stanley Cup Final, was dealt to Carolina for two minor leaguers. At the time he was the all-time leader in games played as a Panther.

The popular Bryan McCabe went to the New York Rangers for a third-round draft pick and journeyman Tim Kennedy who played 33 games for Florida over two seasons.

Veteran Cory Stillman went to Carolina for a third-round draft pick and Ryan Carter who had a lengthy NHL career but only played 19 games for Florida before being waived and picked up by New Jersey.

Michael Frolik, who was a first-round draft pick in 2006 but never achieved NHL stardom was traded for three players, including Jack Skille who spent two more seasons in Florida.

Dennis Wideman was pulled off the ice during a practice to be told he was traded to Washington for an ECHL player.

Longtime Florida defenseman Bryan Allen, who came to the Panthers from Vancouver in the original Roberto Luongo trade, went to Carolina for the slumping Sergei Samsonov — a player who retired at the end of the season. Samsonov had three goals in his 20 games with Florida.

Allen was traded just before the Panthers were to fly to Carolina for a game against the Hurricanes. After initially telling him he could fly with the team to Raleigh, they changed their minds at the last minute. Allen caught a late-night flight on US Airways instead.

“We added a great number of picks, added some young players with more skills, size, etc.,’’ Tallon said at the time. “Got younger and really solidified our future as far as what the blueprint calls for.”

Yes, the blueprint. That was a Panthers marketing phrase that the team was finally going to get better by going younger.

By shedding the team of most of its veteran contracts, Tallon had a lot of cap room in 2011 — and went on the biggest spending spree the franchise had ever seen.

Tallon brought back Ed Jovanovski, traded for Brian Campbell and Tomas Kopecky, while signing Jose Theodore, Tomas Fleischmann, Sean Bergenheim, Scottie Upshall, and Kris Versteeg among others.

The Panthers ended their 10-year playoff drought in 2012, winning the Southeast Division for the first and only time.

It took four more years until Florida made the playoffs again in 2016.

In the 2010s, the Panthers only made the playoffs twice.

In 2019, Florida went on another spending spree and signed Sergei Bobrovsky — who may or may not be traded by Friday.

The second half of that season was pretty disappointing, and at the trade deadline, Tallon made a pretty big move by sending Trocheck to Carolina for four players.

Florida was only two points out of the playoffs at the time, but both Tallon and coach Joel Quenneville felt the team needed a spark. Trading off Trocheck did not accomplish that.

Trocheck, who was considered the team’s ‘engine,’ was having an off season. He had term.

“Since the All-Star break, our team has really struggled, and we wanted to find a way to shake things up and see what would work,’’ Tallon said.

The Panthers received Eric Haula, Lucas Wallmark, and Chase Priskie in the deal. All played a handful of games for the Panthers.

Priskie, from Pembroke Pines, became the first South Florida born-and-raised player to ever play for the Panthers.

The sleeper in that deal was a throw-in named Eetu Luostarinen.

The Panthers made a few other trade deadline deals that season. 

Denis Malgin was shipped to Toronto after four relatively unproductive seasons in Florida. In return the Panthers received Mason Marchment, who had a breakout season in Florida the following year, enabling him to sign a lucrative contract with Dallas.

Florida made a few more minor transaction at the 2020 deadline and, thanks to the Covid shutdown, made the expanded postseason. That kicked off a run of six straight years in the playoffs.

What will happen this year is anybody’s guess.

The playoffs are all but written off, so Bill Zito will be looking to free up cap space for the offseason as well as to bring Jones — and, perhaps Sasha Barkov — back.

The acquisition of journeyman goaltender Louis Domingue for the remainder of the season may be a subtle hint that a goalie may be moving by the deadline.

Stay tuned. It should be an interesting few days.

ON DECK: GAME No. 62

FLORIDA PANTHERS at COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS   
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