Matthew Caldwell, Shawn Thornton Leave Panthers For NBA
Florida Panthers’ team president and CEO Matthew Caldwell is set to leave the organization after 11 years to become the CEO of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, per David Dwork of The Hockey News. The report was confirmed by Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press. Additionally, former NHL pro Shawn Thornton announced he will step down from his role as Florida’s Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) to join the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks as a Senior Vice President and Chief Partnership Officer. Thornton joined Florida’s executive staff in 2017.
These moves stand as two major changes to the Panthers’ top level of business management. Caldwell joined the Panthers in 2014, amid some of their darkest years. He quickly took to a litany of responsibilities, and earned a promotion from Chief Operating Officer (COO) to CEO after just two years with the organization. He was 36 at the time. In the boosted role, Caldwell was able to take on efforts that helped to reshape the Panthers from an NHL bottom-dweller to a modern dynasty.
Caldwell played an instrumental role in the formation of Florida’s lauded front office and coaching staff. He supported the team to a franchise record in ticket sales, TV viewership, and sponsorship revenue and led the hiring of then-rookie general manager Bill Zito. Caldwell also supported the sale of local media rights to Bally Sports in 2022, Florida’s arena naming rights to Amerant Bank in 2023, and additional media sales to Scripps Sports in 2024. The trio of deals expanded coverage of Panthers hockey across Florida.
Success in the Sunshine State was only a small part of Caldwell’s career. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and served five years as a Captain in the U.S. Army. During that time, he oversaw combat operations in Iraq, peacekeeping efforts in Kosovo, and soldier training in Germany. He received numerous accolades for that service. Caldwell turned towards a career on Wall Street after his military duty concluded, taking on the role of Vice President with Goldman Sachs. He also attended the Northwestern University School of Law for his J.D. and MBA degrees. The Panthers cover Caldwell’s accomplishments more in depth on their website.
Now, Caldwell will join the Timberwolves and Lynx on the heels of their sale to Marc Lore and former MLB legend Alex Rodrigues. In doing so, he will continue to sustain an illustrious career that Panthers Owner Vincent Viola knows they won’t be able to replace. Viola told the Associated Press:
There are very few opportunities I would advise him to pursue, but working with Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore on a global platform like the NBA is at the top of that list… Matt’s impact on our organization has been immeasurable and he leaves with our respect and gratitude
On top of that weight, the Panthers will also lose former bruiser turned proficient executive Shawn Thornton. Thornton played through 14 years and 705 games in the NHL. He was among the very last true enforcers in the NHL, and racked up an incredible 1,103 penalty minutes over the course of his career. Over his full career, Thornton averaged 12 points and 128 penalty minutes per 82 games played.
Thornton retired as a member of the Florida Panthers in 2017, at the age of 39, and quickly took to a front office role. His business career began as a Senior Vice President of Business Operations – filling a litany of roles, including heading marketing, sponsorships, broadcasting, game presentation, and community relations. He was promoted to the team’s Chief Commercial Officer in 2020, then to CRO in 2022.
Thornton has been a pillar of growth since the onset of his post-playing career. In addition to his role with the Panthers, he also runs the Shawn Thornton Foundation – geared towards raising funding for life-threatening diseases, including Parkinson’s Disease. That organization was formed in 2013.
Florida will now bear the burden of filling two major roles in their executive offices. It will be a tough task, though one the organization seems well set up for after winning back-to-back Stanley Cups and appearing in three-straight Stanley Cup Finals. They’re a true NHL dynasty, and averaged the fifth-most attendance in the league last season according to HockeyDB. This news will mark turnover and new opportunity for a club in the midst of their peak.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports.
Should The Panthers Use Tkachuk's LTIR Money Now?
Last season, the Panthers used the LTIR flexibility from Matthew Tkachuk to add big at the trade deadline. Adam Proteau of The Hockey News argues that Florida should take the same approach and use the savings to add a rental player before the season starts. While that would only increase the amount of cap space they’d need to open up when he returns midseason (barring further long-term injuries), it would also give them a boost in the first half. While the Panthers came on strong in the playoffs, they struggled a bit down the stretch with Tkachuk out of the lineup and a slower start this season could complicate things in a tight Atlantic Division. Accordingly, the idea of pre-renting a player makes some sense in theory with an eye on fortifying their roster for the first half but the need to open up room to welcome Tkachuk back later on would only be intensified, rarely an ideal position to be in midseason.
Matthew Tkachuk Underwent Surgery, Aiming For January Return
Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk‘s health entering the season has been a topic of conversation after he returned early from an adductor injury sustained at the 4 Nations Face-Off to suit up in Florida’s run to a second straight Stanley Cup. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period now relays that Tkachuk indeed opted for surgery to repair it, undergoing the procedure “a few weeks ago,” and could miss as much as the first four months of the campaign.
It’s still not clear what caused the right-winger’s injury during the 4 Nations tournament, but he missed the balance of the regular season and wasn’t cleared to return until Game 2 of the Cats’ first-round win over the Lightning. Opting for non-surgical rehab initially to accelerate his return timeline, he still managed to rattle off a point per game as he marched to his third straight Stanley Cup Final and second straight win, although his 17:24 average time on ice was a noticeable drop from his previous usage.
His projected return timeline makes him LTIR-eligible and offers the Panthers a pathway to cap compliance to begin the season, but it’s not that simple. They’re now $4.5MM over the cap and, on top of shuffling their roster to optimize his LTIR relief, they have to figure out a way to reinstate him on the active roster when he’s ready to return while staying below the $95.5MM upper limit. They likely won’t concern themselves with the first bit too much, as he’s not a season-long absence and their roster is full, but their roadmap to a compliant roster and a healthy Tkachuk is still murky.
Tkachuk, 27, has averaged 99 points per 82 games since arriving in Florida in 2022 via the blockbuster trade with the Flames that sent Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar the other way. He also has 25 goals and 69 points in 67 playoff games for the Panthers over the last three years, ranking fourth and third in franchise history, respectively.
In the interim, the Panthers can expect 2021 first-rounder Mackie Samoskevich to play a pivotal role in their early-season success. The 22-year-old winger filled in for Tkachuk down the stretch last year and finished his rookie campaign with a 15-16–31 scoring line in 72 games. He’ll now get more opportunity out of the gate after essentially being forced to sign a league-minimum contract this summer thanks to Florida’s cap crunch and his 10.2(c) status prohibiting him from signing an offer sheet.
Panthers Sign Luke Kunin
The Panthers have signed versatile forward Luke Kunin to a one-year deal, the team announced. It’s a one-way, league minimum contract, according to PuckPedia.
This will be the fifth NHL stop for Kunin, who began his career as the 15th overall pick in the 2016 draft by the Wild. He turned pro the next year after two collegiate seasons at Wisconsin and got his first taste of NHL action after making Minnesota’s opening night roster in 2017-18. Over his first three years in the NHL with the Wild, he developed rather quickly and recorded a 23-29–52 scoring line in 131 games – including an optimistic 31-point showing in 63 games in 2019-20.
Minnesota traded Kunin to Nashville in the 2020 offseason in exchange for Nick Bonino. The move brought both an ice time reduction and injury troubles. He recorded a career-high 0.50 points per game in his first year with the Preds, scoring 10 goals and 19 points in the COVID-shortened 2021 season, but was limited to 38 games with a lower-body injury. His production pace dropped to 22 points over a full 82-game schedule the following year before he was traded during the offseason again, this time to San Jose for John Leonard.
Kunin returned to a regular top-nine role with increased penalty-killing responsibility for the rebuilding Sharks, but ACL surgery ended his first season in the Bay Area after recording 13 points in 31 games.
Since returning for 2023-24, Kunin has taken on more of a pure checking role with significantly decreased offensive success. He posted identical 11-7–18 scoring lines in each of the last two seasons, along with an eye-popping cumulative -58 rating, although playing mostly on the league’s worst team during that time will obviously exaggerate poor defensive impacts. San Jose understandably wasn’t keen on re-signing him this summer and instead flipped him to the Blue Jackets at the trade deadline for a fourth-round pick. He went pointless with a -5 rating in 12 games for Columbus before reaching the open market for the first time this year.
As such, a spot in Florida’s opening night lineup is far from guaranteed. He was receiving NHL interest, but he enters the Panthers organization after a tough stretch and now must compete with names like Jonah Gadjovich, A.J. Greer, and Tomas Nosek – each of whom has proven effective fourth-line pieces on a Stanley Cup champion – for ice time.
The Panthers already have a projected cap exceedance of $3.725MM, but with star winger Matthew Tkachuk likely headed for adductor surgery soon, he’ll be LTIR-eligible and allow the Cats to be compliant to begin the season.
Morning Notes: Ekblad, Verhoeff, Wood
Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad wasn’t particularly personally involved in the last-minute contract talks that led to him signing an eight-year, $48.8MM contract extension instead of testing free agency this summer, he told RG’s DJ Siddiqi.
Ekblad spoke on how his situation intertwined with other potential Florida UFAs, Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand, both of whom also signed long-term deals to stay with the back-to-back champions. “Obviously we had conversations about what could or may happen, but at the end of the day, I think a lot of us just left it up to our agents to figure it out. We give them instructions, and they kind of handle the gist of it at least. That’s how I felt, personally. I didn’t want to get too involved with the negotiation.”
That’s a formula that’s worked well for the Panthers in the last two seasons, only jotting down defensemen Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Brandon Montour as their only notable free agent departures in 2024. Along with being able to keep Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe off the open market in that time, general manager Bill Zito may be in for some short-term pain in terms of cap management, but has certainly sold his group on long-term stability.
When Bennett, Ekblad, and Marchand signed their deals, they gave Florida 10 players locked in through the remainder of the decade. That number is proportional to their talent, including their top seven forwards and top three defensemen. That’s some invaluable cost certainty that, despite being rather limited in external additions this offseason, will open up more space for the Cats to be aggressive over the summer as soon as next year.
Here’s more from around the league:
- While he still enters the season as the consensus No. 2 option in the 2026 draft class, defenseman Keaton Verhoeff still has some work to do to maintain that title, Scott Wheeler of The Athletic opines. “I did want to see Keaton Verhoeff dominate more than he did,” Wheeler wrote, referencing this month’s Hlinka Gretzky tournament for the under-18 age group. “At the present moment, I don’t view Verhoeff as a [Matthew Schaefer]-level D prospect. Now, it’s early, and if Verhoeff has a huge year playing big minutes at North Dakota and takes some steps in his development as a 6-foot-4 summer birthday, maybe that changes… I’ve also felt, dating back to U17s last fall, that Verhoeff’s feet are just average whereas Schaefer’s are world class. Verhoeff is bigger and shoots it harder, but that skating gap is pronounced and gives Schaefer the higher ceiling.“
- Veteran defenseman Kyle Wood is on his way to Germany on a one-year deal with the DEL’s Iserlohn Roosters, the team announced. The 6’7″ righty was a third-round pick by the Avalanche back in 2014 but was sent to the Coyotes as part of a package for winger Mikkel Bødker at the 2016 trade deadline. He was an AHL All-Rookie Team member with Arizona’s affiliate in Tucson, recording 43 points in 68 games in his first professional season, but never sniffed that level of offensive production again and never reached the NHL. He’s been overseas since 2020, spending the last three years with Kunlun Red Star (now the Shanghai Dragons) in the KHL. He previously had 21 points in 32 DEL2 games for Löwen Frankfurt in the 2020-21 season, so this isn’t his first rodeo in German hockey.
Shawn Thornton Leaves Florida Panthers Organization
- According to a post on his LinkedIn, and shared by Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub, former NHL enforcer Shawn Thornton is moving on from his position with the Florida Panthers. Despite not sharing the next role of his career, Thornton had been working as the Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations for the Panthers for the last four years. Without speculating too much on his next chapter, it’s realistic to think that Thornton has found another role in hockey operations elsewhere.
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Players Who Could Start The Season On LTIR
While only a handful of teams project to need cap relief via long-term injured reserve to open the season, multiple candidates across the league might technically qualify for a placement. Doing so would bar the player from returning until Oct. 31 at the earliest – 24 days from the season start date of Oct. 7.
Avalanche: Logan O’Connor
O’Connor underwent hip surgery in early June. Given the five-to-six-month projected recovery window, he won’t be available until early November at best, putting him past the 10-game/24-day threshold required for LTIR. Colorado, which has $2.10MM in current cap space, will likely place O’Connor on standard IR if they don’t make any other cap-affecting moves between now and October. If they need the relief, though, they could create up to O’Connor’s $2.5MM cap hit in cushion for the first few weeks of the season if they need it.
Blues: Torey Krug
St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong announced in May that Krug’s career is done because of pre-arthritic conditions in his left ankle that surgical intervention only slowly corrected. Since the Blues only have around $625K in cap space, Krug and his $6.5MM cap hit will be going on LTIR as soon as they need the flexibility for a call-up.
Canadiens: Carey Price
What’s certain is that Price won’t play this season or ever again. He’s entering the final season of his contract at a $10.5MM cap hit after confirming nearly two years ago that his knee injury would prohibit him from suiting up again. What’s uncertain is whether or not he’ll begin the season on LTIR. Montreal isn’t in a great position to optimize its LTIR relief, either by matching his cap hit in excess or getting down to $0 in space before placing him on the list. That’s made his contract a trade chip for teams who might need the relief more.
Devils: Johnathan Kovacevic
Kovacevic underwent knee surgery in early May and won’t be ready for training camp and likely opening night as well. Whether that stretches past Oct. 31 and makes him eligible for an LTIR placement if New Jersey needs cap relief early on remains to be seen.
Flyers: Ryan Ellis, Rasmus Ristolainen
Ellis’ career is over after sustaining a wide-ranging muscular injury in his pelvis just four games into his Flyers tenure in 2021. Ristolainen underwent a procedure on his right triceps tendon on March 26 with a six-month recovery time, putting him right on the edge of potential LTIR eligibility. Philly will have a better idea of the latter’s LTIR deployment potential after he undergoes his training camp physical. With $370K in cap space, they’re in a good position for near-max LTIR capture and will almost certainly at least place Ellis there to begin the year to give them call-up flexibility.
Golden Knights: Alex Pietrangelo
Pietrangelo is already on offseason LTIR, meaning the Knights actually still have to add an additional $1.2MM to their roster before opening night to optimize his capture and unlock his full $8.8MM cap hit’s worth of relief for this season. The team confirmed he requires multiple undisclosed but significant surgeries that will likely mark the end of his playing career, but it’s unclear if he’s actually had them done yet.
Jets: Adam Lowry
Lowry underwent hip surgery in late May and won’t be available until after Thanksgiving at the earliest. Winnipeg likely won’t be formalizing an LTIR placement with nearly $4MM in cap space, though.
Mammoth: Juuso Välimäki
Välimäki underwent ACL surgery in early March. He likely won’t end up on LTIR given Utah’s current cap flexibility ($6.68MM), but he’ll be out until at least early November so he’ll be there as an early-season option in case they need relief for whatever reason.
Oilers: Zach Hyman
Hyman’s inclusion here is on the speculative side. The winger could very well be ready for the start of the season. However, there hasn’t been much clarity on how much recovery he still needs after undergoing surgery to repair a severe wrist injury that kept him out of the Stanley Cup Final. A report in early June indicated there was uncertainty about his status for training camp, with no meaningful updates since then.
Panthers: Matthew Tkachuk
Tkachuk told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski earlier this month that he’s still deciding whether he wants to undergo surgery to address the adductor issue that hampered him down the stretch and in the playoffs after sustaining it at the 4 Nations Face-Off. All signs point to him opting for it and spending the next two to three months on the shelf as a result, though. Placing him on LTIR is the only way the Panthers, who currently have a cap exceedance of $3.725MM, can be compliant to start the season without shedding a significant contract, something they aren’t keen to do.
Wild: Jonas Brodin
Minnesota has $9.41MM in cap space, but that number will shrink once they re-sign restricted free agent Marco Rossi (or add salary while trading his signing rights). Neither scenario will likely push them into a situation where they need to use LTIR relief, but they might have Brodin and his $6MM cap hit as an option for some short-term flexibility if required. He underwent an upper-body procedure in early June and is questionable for the beginning of the season, so it’s not yet clear if he’ll miss enough time to qualify.
Evan Cormier Remaining In Panthers Organization On AHL Deal
The Panthers organization is retaining goaltender Evan Cormier on an AHL contract with the Charlotte Checkers, per a team release. Cormier has spent the last two seasons on AHL deals with the Checkers, signing NHL contracts with Florida at each trade deadline to give them an emergency backup option down the stretch and in the postseason. He cleared waivers each time to play out the regular season in the minors.
Cormier, 27, was a fourth-round pick by the Devils in 2016 but saw his signing rights expire following the 2017-18 season. The team nonetheless signed him to his entry-level contract midway through the following year, bringing him out of the University of Guelph to make the jump to the pros. He spent the next three years in the organization with AHL Binghamton and ECHL Adirondack before being non-tendered following the 2021-22 season.
From 2021 to 23, Cormier primarily played in the Jets organization under contract with AHL Manitoba. Like he has the past two years with Florida, he inked a two-way NHL deal with Winnipeg at the 2023 trade deadline to give them a playoff EBUG option.
Cormier has still never played an NHL game, though, and last season was his first without AHL time since he turned pro. The 6’3″ Ontario native instead spent the year with Florida’s second-tier affiliate, ECHL Savannah, where he struggled with a 3.38 GAA, .887 SV%, one shutout, and a 17-13-4 record in 36 appearances.
With the Cats having Cooper Black, Brandon Bussi, and Kirill Gerasimyuk all signed to two-way deals for the upcoming campaign, their AHL goaltending situation is set. Cormier will likely reprise the same ECHL role for them next season, and the likelihood of him getting another late-year NHL deal is slim with Florida entering the season with five contracted options between the pipes.
Red Wings Were Preparing Substantial Offer For Ekblad
On the heels of winning their second consecutive Stanley Cup championship, the Florida Panthers continued to impress the hockey world by re-signing their three biggest pending unrestricted free agents entering the offseason: Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, and Aaron Ekblad. Even more impressively, the Panthers were able to re-sign the latter two for deals well short of their projected value on the open market.
Mirtle argued that Ekblad’s situation might be different due to his strong affection for the Panthers organization. However, most top-tier free agents are reluctant to sign with Detroit, as the team has not made the postseason since the 2015-16 season and has not won a playoff series since the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign. Still, the Red Wings will enter the 2025-26 season with the seventh-most cap space of any team, and will have even more for what is shaping up to be a loaded free agent class next summer.
Panthers Sign Mike Benning To Two-Way Contract
The Panthers have signed RFA defenseman Mike Benning, according to a team release. The deal is a two-way pact, although financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Benning remains in the Florida organization after spending his first two professional seasons with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers while he played out his entry-level contract. While he missed nearly 20 games last season due to injury, he upped his offensive production to 23 assists and 32 points in 54 games after posting 26 points in 72 games in his rookie season for Charlotte. That wasn’t enough to get him an NHL call-up, though, and he became an RFA this summer without a top-level game to his name.
As a 10.2(c) player with fewer than three years of professional experience, Benning was ineligible to sign an offer sheet or to request an arbitration hearing upon receiving a qualifying offer in June. He was locked into a new deal with the Panthers as a result, one that presumably includes a raise over the $80K minors salary dictated by his ELC and maintains his waiver-exempt status for one more season.
A fourth-round pick by the Cats in 2020, Benning always faced an uphill battle for NHL minutes because of his 5’9″, 176-lb frame. Despite that, he was a dominant two-way threat in college at the University of Denver. His standout sophomore season in 2021-22 saw him record a 15-23–38 scoring line with a +32 rating in 41 appearances. Not only did he help the Pioneers to an NCAA championship, but he was also named the MVP of the national tournament. He recorded 34 points in 39 games the following season to be named the NCHC’s best offensive defenseman before turning pro with the Panthers in 2023.
Because of his underwhelming frame, he’ll need to become an undeniable offensive force at the minor-league level to sniff an NHL role. While he’s steadily improved since making his pro debut, that hasn’t quite happened yet. Today’s deal gives him another year of runway and ideally at least one call-up opportunity to prove he could at least be effective as a power-play specialist.
The Panthers have now filled 45 of their 50 contract slots for 2025-26. They have no other unsigned RFAs remaining, at least among players who haven’t already agreed to contracts overseas.