Although they are free to do so during the offseason, the Florida Panthers are currently $3.725MM over the upper limit of the salary cap. This means that in a few months, the Panthers will need to trim nearly $4MM from their active roster for a cap-compliant lineup, and many have speculated that Evan Rodrigues and his $3MM salary could be a consequence of that reality.
Still, no guarantee it’ll happen, and it’s even appearing unlikely. In the most recent rendition of 32 Thoughts with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the journalist said he doesn’t believe Florida will trade Rodrigues this offseason, despite the need for additional cap space.
Rodrigues’ spot on the roster was likely made safe by the recent injury update, again from Friedman, regarding winger Matthew Tkachuk. Friedman shared a few days ago that he doesn’t believe Tkachuk will play meaningful hockey until the Winter Olympics next season due to a torn adductor muscle suffered during the postseason. If that’s the case, the Panthers could place Tkachuk and his $9.5MM on LTIR for the first five months of the regular season, giving them more than enough space for cap compliance.
General Manager Bill Zito has already been commended this summer for his ability to retain a large portion of the lineup that won the franchise its second consecutive Stanley Cup championship a few months ago. Again, although they’d likely much rather have Tkachuk in the lineup for the entire regular season, Zito has avoided a situation where he’d have to move on from Rodrigues.
Rodrigues has never been a true top-six piece at the NHL level, but has offered teams the flexibility to move him anywhere around the lineup. The Panthers have gotten exactly what they expected out of him when they signed him to a four-year, $12MM agreement before the 2023-24 season.
Since donning the Panthers’ crest, Rodrigues has scored 27 goals and 71 points in 162 games with a +22 rating, averaging 15:12 of ice time per game. He’s been a consistent physical presence in the team’s middle-six, and has even provided them with quality defense as evidenced by his 91.9% on-ice save percentage at even strength.
Rodrigues, like many of his teammates in Sunrise, has elevated his performance during the postseason. In the Panthers’ two most recent Stanley Cup Final victories, he has scored nine goals and accumulated a total of 30 points in 45 games. Additionally, he has recorded 98 hits and averages 15:24 of ice time per game. He’s never been the most important player on Florida’s roster, or even the most well-known, but the franchise recognizes the value he brings and has done well to retain him.
I mean, they have to move SOMEBODY at some point around the start of the year or not long after. Tkachuk can start the year on LTIR but he’s going to be ready come November barring no setbacks. They can’t activate him until they move someone out. So who goes? Luostarainen?
He too young luostarainen is to good to move
Might be that someone falls apart in training camp and gets dumped. Might be they find a deal for someone who underperforms the first couple months of the season. Might be someone *else* gets hurt and goes on LTIR.
Or perhaps Tkachuk is going to be out until the Olympic break in February like the article suggests and they bank some cap space?
I thought teams couldn’t accumulate space with someone on the LTIR.
If memory serves me correct, they cannot gain any extra space, but the 2/3’s of his contract won’t count towards their cap while he is out. So they’ll only need to find 1M in space at that time instead of 3M.And at that point they may have someone out for the season freeing up the necessary space they need.
they could fudge a LTIR when Tkachuk comes back…. this won’t be an issue beyond this season as they have a ton of cap space and the cap is getting bigger
I guess this approach will still work for this season but not under the next CBA due to needing to be cap compliant during the playoffs?
I get the whole wear and tear of 3 years deep in the playoffs but if this team is healthy come postseason they’re going to be pretty scary yet again.