Panthers May Have To Trade Forward As A Cap Casualty
The Florida Panthers don’t have enough money to sign Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, and Aaron Ekblad, but they have shown interest in bringing all of them back. No matter what they do, I can’t see all three returning, but two of them make enough sense. The team may have to make a trade to move someone out and free up some room though.
Nick Kypreos mentions Evan Rodrigues as a potential salary cap casualty if this is the case. He is able to move all over the lineup and has been a productive piece for the Panthers for the past two seasons, in the regular season and the playoffs.
Rodrigues will be 32 years old and has a cap hit of $3 million AAV for two more years. This is a good deal for a player that has recorded 27 goals and 71 points in 162 games in the regular season and nine goals and 30 points in 45 games in the playoffs. That is affordable for many teams and his value should be fairly high considering he turns it up a few notches once the games matter the most.
Say Bennett and Marchand are able to be brought back. That would cost the Panthers around $15-16 million AAV. The Panthers have $19 million in projected cap space and a number of roster spots to fill. This includes signing recently acquired Daniil Tarasov, a couple forwards, and defensemen. Rodrigues is the only Panther with a significant enough cap hit to make a difference when trying to form the rest of the team.
The Panthers have also been linked to some bigger named free agents or trade targets, so even if only Bennett returns, the extra space could be utilized to get someone who is much more impactful than Rodrigues. Florida should not have a tough time trading him for a good profit if it plays out that way.
