The Florida Panthers have signed Evan Fitzpatrick to a one-year, two-way contract to give the team some additional goaltending depth. Fitzpatrick had been playing in the minor leagues on an AHL contract but will have that voided now to get an NHL deal. That allows the Panthers to bring him up to the taxi squad, which they have immediately done as they deal with absences at the NHL level.
Fitzpatrick, 23, was a second-round pick by the St. Louis Blues in 2016 but failed to receive a qualifying offer from them when his entry-level contract expired in 2021. That made him an unrestricted free agent and looking for a job, which he found with the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL. The young netminder signed a two-year AHL contract in August and had split this season between Charlotte and the Greenville Swamp Rabbits of the ECHL, seeing much more time in the low minors than the AHL.
Now, he’ll basically become a practice goaltender for the Panthers, who have recently been forced to navigate absences from Spencer Knight and Jonas Johansson due to COVID protocols. With Fitzpatrick in place, the team will at least always have a professional goaltender to go in as a backup, should the team run into any more last-minute absences.
While the release does not include the financial details, it is very likely that Fitzpatrick will carry a cap hit of just $750K at the NHL level–a cap hit that is completely buried while the waiver-exempt goaltender is on the taxi squad or in the minor leagues. Technically this will leave Fitzpatrick as a restricted free agent at the end of the season, though he would once again be a candidate to go unqualified.