George Richards, FHN Publisher
In 2019, the Florida Panthers swapped goalies with Carolina — sending James Reimer to the Hurricanes for Scott Darling.
Darling’s time with the Panthers was ever so brief although his name will be on their books for the next couple of years.
Florida made the trade in order to buy out Darling’s contract the day before signing Sergei Bobrovsky.
Although Darling obviously never played in a game for the Panthers, the possibility still exists that could, indeed, happen this coming season.
Darling is currently in South Florida working on the ice with the rest of the Panthers in town for informal workouts.
He will be in town at least a little longer.
Darling, general manager Bill Zito confirmed, will be at Florida’s training camp next week on a professional try out.
Florida will also have defenseman Kevin Connauton in on a PTO.
Both players have ties to Florida management.
Darling was part of coach Joel Quenneville’s 2015 Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks and played three seasons under Quenneville in Darling’s hometown of Chicago.
Connauton spent parts of two seasons with Columbus and Zito from 2014-16. He has played in 314 NHL games with Dallas, Columbus, Arizona and Colorado.
If Darling were to make the Panthers, he would count against the salary cap twice — as a player and as a buyout.
Last year, Darling cost the Panthers $1.23 million in cap space and that goes up to $2.3 million this year.
Darling will also count $1.18 million against Florida’s cap for the following two seasons.
When it comes to buyouts, teams are not allowed to sign a player they bought out for one full season.
If Darling were to make the Panthers, he could be signed.
In September, Darling was a guest on John Scott’s Dropping the Gloves podcast and said he would “happily play in the AHL,” in trying to return to the NHL after spending last season in Austria.
So, Florida could be looking at Darling as an option in Charlotte.
Darling spent time playing for the Checkers during what would be his final season with Carolina in 2018-19.
The Panthers will carry three goalies this season (Sergei Bobrovsky, Chris Driedger and Sam Montembeault) which would likely leave the AHL net to Philippe Desrosiers and Ryan Bednard.
If Darling looked good in training camp, it could give him a chance to either stick with the Panthers or get an opportunity elsewhere.
In other Florida-related goalie news, Craig Anderson (who played for the Panthers from 2006-09 and lives with his family in Parkland) will be in Washington’s camp on a PTO.
In 2017, Carolina traded for Darling, who had spent most of his time in Chicago as the backup, then signed him to a four-year, $16.6-million contract.
Things didn’t work out.
Darling struggled with the Hurricanes and was waived early in his second season with Carolina and demoted to the AHL.
The team eventually planned to buy out the final two years but traded him to the Panthers instead.
So, why did the Panthers trade Reimer for Darling just to buy out his contract?
It was done to ultimately to save a little real money even if the cap hit was a bit greater over the course of the four seasons.
With Reimer under contract for two more seasons, it would have cost Florida more money (but less of a cap hit over the four years) to buy his deal out because of the way that contract was written.
Reimer had a $2.25 million signing bonus owed which would have to be paid out in full.
Both Reimer and Darling had two years remaining on their contracts and Darling actually made more — yet the Panthers saved money by making the trade because Darling did not have any sort of signing bonus included.
Buying out Reimer was a worst-case scenario. Buying out Darling instead was simply better than nothing.
And, for Carolina, it was a nice move.
They were going to buy out Darling anyway; in this trade, they were able to get a goalie they would use in Reimer who went 14-6-2 2.66/.914 for the Canes last season.
For the Panthers, the buyouts (per PuckPedia.com) worked out against the cap like this:
Reimer (not bought out but traded) — 2019-20: $958,000; 2020-21: $3.2 million; 2021-22: $658,000; 2022-23: $658,000.
Darling (acquired in trade and bought out) — 2019-20: $1.23 million; 2020-21: $2.33 million; 2021-22: $1.18 million; 2022-23: $1.18 million.
The Panthers plan to report for training camp physicals on Sunday with the first on-ice practice of the 2021 season expected to be Monday at the IceDen in Coral Springs.
Although the Panthers plan on having fans inside the BB&T Center when the 2021 season kicks off Jan. 14 against Dallas, training camp will be closed to the public.