How Aggressive Will the Florida Panthers Be?
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined Sirius XM NHL Network Radio with Steve Kouleas and Nate Thompson on Wednesday. He was asked about the Florida Panthers’ plans and what they plan to add at the deadline.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Steve Kouleas: “With Dave Pagnotta, Sirius XM Insider, the Panthers hit the halfway mark on pace for 94 points. 95 looks like it’s the magic number to make the playoffs. What is Bill Zito strategy? As (Matthew) Tkachuk’s imminent return is on this trip. We see (Aleksander) Barkov is skating. He’s still a ways away from playing, of course. If he does play this year, what’s the Florida plan?”
Dave Pagnotta: “Yeah, well, they’re going to get Tkachuk back by all accounts on this road trip that just started (Tuesday), they lost to Toronto. They got the Habs (Thursday night, and they lost).
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But all indications are that Matthew Tkachuk is going to be back in the lineup before the Panthers return on home ice, in whatever is little over a week and a half. With him back and where their cap situation is, with all the LTIR cap space and everything, they’re going to be sitting with enough room to get them there, to be cap compliant, to have him in the lineup, but that only leaves them a little bit of space.
They can do a little bit of juggling and move some guys down to the AHL. Guys who are waiver-exempt will have the flexibility to add up to $2 million plus in cap space in that regard. I think they’re going to start looking. Word that starting to kind of trickle around the league that he, Bill Zito, I should say, is starting to lurk a little bit.
Just starting to get his options, him and the staff to see what’s out there. And if they can make a depth add or two. One, presumably on the back end, before the trade deadline, not necessarily the Olympic Break, but if they can make a depth add or two, it wouldn’t shock a lot of people if they do that.
Now, of course, you have to be cap compliant in the playoffs with whatever roster is put on the ice, and Barkov’s timeline is Conference Final-sque. If it escalates and improves, maybe it’s the second round. So they still have a lot of runway before worrying about that. But it does sound like they’re starting to look around to see what depth options might be available to them ahead of the trade deadline.
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It wouldn’t surprise people if Bill Zito swings again for an impact move, depth-wise, more likely this time, but it wouldn’t surprise people if he pulled something off.”
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