The Florida Panthers are currently trying to trade a very big piece!

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Jeff Drouin
May 26, 2022 (10:22)

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Following their early exit in four games against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers GM Bill Zito will have his work cut out for him this summer. In addition to seeing his payroll for next season cut by $71.4M for only 16 contracts, he will have to add at least seven players to his roster.

He will also have to build his team keeping in mind that Jonathan Huberdeau will be in the last year of his contract. The Quebecer earns an average salary of $5.9M and it is a safe bet that his next contract will be in the same range as that of his captain, Aleksander Barkov, who will earn $10M annually starting next fall.

Zito will sooner or later have to find a way to make room under the salary cap. It seems, according to Elliotte Friedman, that the player targeted is goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

"I suspect they've made an effort to trade him this year or at least set the stage to do so. I don't know if it's possible, but I've heard that they've really been working on it, like they've really been trying to see if it's possible." - Elliotte Friedman

Bobrovsky won't be easy to trade. His $10M per year salary through the end of the 2025-2026 season doesn't help, nor does his overall playoff performance. In order to part with him, the Panthers will surely have to give a small gift or withhold salary...

The problem is that the Panthers have very few gift options to give and very little room to retain salary or acquire a bad contract. By upgrading the team for the 2022 NHL playoffs, the Panthers no longer have a first round pick until 2025 at the earliest, and unless they complete trades, they also have few top tier assets to offer.

Zito will have to use all his ingenuity if he wants to keep his team at a decent level. Remember that the CH got the Panthers' unprotected first round pick for the 2023 draft in the Ben Chiarot deal. If Zito fails to keep his team competitive, the CH could get a nice gift with a high pick next season.

Friedman's information was barely released on social networks when many saw it as a possible replacement for Carey Price if he were to retire. Do you really think that if Price's salary became available, Kent Hughes would immediately tie his hands with Bobrovsky's? To ask the question is to answer it...