The Florida Panthers are looking to make a trade and might need to shuffle things up a little, but there are some complications based on salary cap issues and some promises made to one player that complicates things even further. Specifically, the Panthers might see moving Patrick Hornqvist as the easiest solution to solve their cap issues, but sources suggest he’s not going anywhere.
When Anthony Duclair is ready to return to the lineup, Florida is going to have to do something with their roster. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff writes, “Because the Florida Panthers have been flying incredibly close to the sun with the salary cap this season. They’re dressing the league minimum, they’re carrying the league minimum of players.” He adds, “to activate Duclair, who I’m told is closing in on a return, he’s already skating, looking like sometime around Christmas at the earliest, he’s got a $3 million cap hit, and in order to activate him, they have no space. They absolutely must make a trade.”
The problem for Florida is figuring out who to move. They don’t necessarily want to trade Duclair, but as Elliotte Friedman points out in his latest 32 Thoughts Podcast, they aren’t going to be able to move a player like Patric Hornqvist.
During the podcast, he noted that even if there wasn’t a “guarantee” handed over that Hornqvist wouldn’t be traded when the Panthers acquired him from the Penguins, he was told they would honor his request not to be moved. Friedman pointed out that it took some convincing in the first place to get Hornqvist to waive his trade protection and the deal was that the Panthers wouldn’t trade him again. Friedman pointed out, that while there isn’t anything technically stopp
ing general manager Bill Zito from going back on his word, the NHL insiders has also been told Florida has no intention of not honoring their unofficial deal.
“These can always change, I’ve learned never to deal in absolutes. But, it appears as if it’s unlikely that Hornqvist would be the guy,’ says Friedman.
Deal Out of Florida Is Coming
Friedman said the Panthers don’t know what they’re going to do to solve their problem and they Panthers are going to look over their options in the coming days. Expect there to be a trade out of Florida, but don’t expect it to be Patric Hornqvist.
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