NHL Trade Rumors: Insider Drops Surprising Update on Panthers' Evan Rodrigues

The Florida Panthers have had a busy offseason as they went all-in on keeping their two-time Stanley Cup champion team together. GM Bill Zito pulled off what many thought was impossible, re-signing all of his 'Big Three' unrestricted free agents, in Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad.

After all that spending, they're currently $3.75 million over the cap. And while they're allowed to exceed the cap by 10% during the offseason (meaning about $9M), they have to be cap compliant by the season opener in October.

That has many observers around the league suggesting that Evan Rodrigues and his $3 million cap hit could be prime fodder for a trade. And we know that several teams have enquired about his availability.

Not so fast, says insider Elliotte Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast.

I think that a number of fans have wondered if Florida would have to trade someone like Evan Rodrigues off their roster to make things work. I don't believe that's going to be happening. First of all, they consider Rodrigues a very important player, and secondly, I think we're going to find out very soon that (Matthew) Tkachuk... will miss the start of the year.

That latter point alludes to the fact that the Panthers will likely be placing Tkachuk on Long Term Injury Reserve (LTIR), thereby lopping his $9.5 million off their cap for at least a couple of months. Friedman has reported that Tkachuk will be missing quite a bit of time to start the season. That gives the Cats plenty of time to figure out their cap situation once the season is well underway.

Rodrigues has two years remaining of a very reasonable $3 million cap hit. He's been a strong two-way player and an important secondary scorer for Florida in his two seasons with the club. Over that time, in 162 games with the Panthers, he has 27 goals, 71 points, has handed out 232 hits, and has a +22 rating. And in the playoffs, he's notched 15 points in each of the team's two Stanley Cup runs. Pretty good production for a $3M cap hit.