Addressing depth in their forward core, Darren Dreger of TSN reports the Florida Panthers have signed free agent forward Tomas Nosek to a one-year, $775K contract. They’ve also inked forward A.J. Greer to a two-year deal, David Dwork of The Hockey News reports. That one carries an $850K cap hit, per Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports.
Nosek came to New Jersey with the hopes that he’d become a key fourth-line center for them. Instead, he dealt with four separate injuries during the season, limiting him to just 36 games, his lowest total since the 2016-17 campaign. In those appearances, the 31-year-old managed just two goals and four assists in a little under 12 minutes per game.
When healthy, Nosek is a consistently above-average player at the faceoff dot who can kill penalties, elements that made him appealing to Florida. He’ll be asked to fill the void created by Kevin Stenlund who inked a two-year deal with Utah on Monday.
As for Greer, he comes over from Calgary to fill the fourth line energy role created by the departure of Ryan Lomberg who coincidentally signed a two-year deal with the Flames. Greer’s price tag is much more affordable for the Panthers, however, given their salary structure.
The 27-year-old played in 59 games last season, recording six goals and six assists along with 100 hits while averaging a little under nine minutes a night. For his career, Greer has 32 points and 205 penalty minutes in 167 NHL appearances between four different organizations.
Nosek is a decent depth guy, good cheap signing here.
Not as good as Stenlund but he is a good pickup at that price