Panthers acquire veteran right winger in trade with Senators

The Panthers acquired pending UFA winger Vladimir Tarasenko from the Senators, according to reports from Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The Senators confirmed the trade and all its parts in a team release.

Florida is sending a 2025 third-round pick and a conditional 2024 fourth-round pick to Ottawa, who retains 50 percent of Tarasenko’s $5M cap hit, per Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. The 2024 fourth-rounder will upgrade to a 2026 third-round pick if the Panthers win the Stanley Cup.

Since no roster players are being sent back to the Senators, the Panthers must place a player on waivers and assign them a non-roster designation in the interim to create space. 

They have no open roster spots or waiver-exempt players to assign to AHL Charlotte. Swallowing Tarasenko’s reduced $2.5M cap hit still leaves Florida with roughly $3.2M in space ahead of Friday’s trade deadline.

Tarasenko joins his fourth team in the past two seasons and, based on previous reporting from Garrioch, ends up in his preferred destination. 

The 32-year-old has complete no-trade protection as part of the one-year deal he signed with Ottawa last summer, which he waived to approve the move to Florida.

In acquiring Tarasenko, Panthers GM Bill Zito addresses his squad’s most significant need on paper — another winger to ride shotgun with Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk. 

30-year-old Nick Cousins, who has just five goals and 10 points in 51 games, has been shouldering top-six minutes with Anton Lundell and Evan Rodrigues finding chemistry together on Florida’s third line.

The defending Eastern Conference champions are now deeper than ever, adding Tarasenko’s 17 goals and 41 points this season to an offense that already ranked eighth in goals per game. Even his middle-of-the-pack possession metrics should be an improvement over the struggling Cousins, who’s hurt both the Bennett and Lundell lines, per MoneyPuck. 

When flanked by Carter Verhaeghe, Bennett and Tkachuk have controlled 60.4 percent of expected goals compared to 51.8 percent with Cousins.

It’s likely not the return the Senators wanted for their highest-value rental, especially with salary retention included. The extent to which Tarasenko’s no-trade clause limited Senators GM Steve Staios’ options for a return is unknown. 

Two draft picks are better than none, though, and there was little reason for Ottawa to hold onto Tarasenko with the playoffs out of reach for a franchise-record seventh straight season.

Tarasenko’s absence should translate to an uptick in ice time for 21-year-old Ridly Greig, who’s averaged under 15 minutes per game down the stretch. 

He’s been one of the Senators’ bright spots this season, posting a team-high +17 rating along with nine goals and 21 points in 49 games. 

Tarasenko’s most common spot alongside Drake Batherson and Tim Stutzle will be filled by another veteran in Claude Giroux, at least out of the gate.

By retaining $2.5M of Tarasenko’s cap hit, the Senators remain over the $83.5M Upper Limit, requiring Joshua Norris’ $7.95M cap hit on LTIR to stay compliant. 

He remains out indefinitely with an upper-body injury potentially related to the shoulder problems that sidelined him for nearly all of 2022-23.

Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest was the first to report that two draft picks were heading from the Panthers to the Senators.