- When the Matthew Tkachuk trade happened, many wondered why the Florida Panthers, a team looking to compete for a Stanley Cup next season, would trade both Mackenzie Weegar and Jonathan Huberdeau, two elite players. Based on recent reporting, it seems that financial considerations were the prime reason why GM Bill Zito was okay with including them in trades. Per Friedman, Huberdeau was likely looking at a contract similar to Aleksander Barkov’s, around $10MM per year for eight seasons. As for Weegar, Friedman notes that Mikhail Sergachev’s recent $8.5MM AAV deal could be a comparable Weegar is looking to when eyeing his next contract. With major financial commitments already on the books for Barkov, Aaron Ekblad, and Sergei Bobrovsky, among others, it seems that the prospect of expensive extensions for both Huberdeau and Weegar made including them in a deal for Tkachuk all that more palatable for the Panthers.
Panthers Rumors
Florida Panthers Agree To Terms With Henry Bowlby
Minor league forward Henry Bowlby has landed another NHL contract, agreeing to terms with the Florida Panthers on a one-year, two-way deal. Bowlby was a restricted free agent and did not file for salary arbitration. PuckPedia reports that the deal will carry an NHL salary of $750K and an AHL salary of $90K.
Bowlby, 25, was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Harvard in 2020, and quickly showed that there may have been some underutilized offensive talent in the winger. In his short run with the Syracuse Crunch in 2020-21 (when the Florida teams shared an AHL affiliate), he scored eight goals and 14 points in 23 games. This year, those numbers dipped a bit but he still managed to put up 12 goals and 28 points in 64 games for the Charlotte Checkers.
For a player who never scored more than eight goals or 16 points in any of his three college seasons, but still managed to land an entry-level contract, it’s been a strong first impression at the professional level. Now, if he’s to ever push for an NHL job, he’ll have to take another step forward and prove he can be a reliable, two-way force for the Checkers this season. Still waiver-exempt, he’ll be headed for the AHL to start the year.
Poll: Who Won The Calgary Flames-Florida Panthers Blockbuster?
Last night’s trade between the Calgary Flames and Florida Panthers involving Matthew Tkachuk and Jonathan Huberdeau will likely go down as one of the biggest blockbuster deals in the NHL’s history. For only the second time in NHL history, two players who were 100-point scorers the previous season were traded for one another, with the other trade involving The Great One himself – Wayne Gretzky (link). To underscore that, in this four-player deal, MacKenzie Weegar, who received Norris votes in each of the last two seasons and has established himself as a true top-pairing defenseman, was most likely only the third best player involved.
In the trade, the Panthers were able to acquire a 24-year-old superstar winger, one who scored 42 goals as part of a 104-point campaign this past season, crushing previous career-bests, as well as a conditional fourth-round pick in 2025 (0r 2026). On top of simply acquiring Tkachuk, Florida was able to ensure the player came signed long-term, as the teams worked out a sign-and-trade with the forward, who agreed to an eight-year, $76MM contract with the Flames immediately prior to the trade. That extension, likely helped by Calgary’s ability to give Tkachuk the eighth-year that no other team had, not only boosted Tkachuk’s value in the trade, but was likely a sticking point for any interested team, protecting them from the threat of the young star testing the free agent market next summer.
As interesting as an MVP-caliber-player for MVP-caliber-player trade is, this one is made all the more intriguing by considering that Huberdeau is arguably the better player as against Tkachuk, but it was Huberdeau that was sent along with Weegar, prospect Cole Schwindt, and a first-round pick for Tkachuk and a fourth-round pick. In Huberdeau, Calgary receives a superstar playmaker who has averaged over a point-per-game since 2018-19, including an incredible 115 point 2021-22. Not necessarily seen as the superstar-caliber player that the other two are, Weegar has quietly emerged as one of the league’s best defensemen, combining excellent puck-moving with superb shutdown defense.
The caveat in this deal, that makes it feel a bit more even, is the fact that both Huberdeau and Weegar will be UFA’s next summer, not coming with extensions in place like Tkachuk, meaning Calgary, unlike Florida, is at risk to lose their players rather soon. Even if Florida decided to hang on to both players and try to extend them, Huberdeau currently carries just a $5.9MM cap hit and Weegar just $3.25MM; an extension of either would carry a very significant raise, perhaps double each salary. Tkachuck’s extension, on the other hand, comes in at just $250K more per season than their current AAV’s combined.
Not to be forgotten in the deal is Schwindt, a 2019 third-round pick of the Panthers. The forward was a star for the Mississauga Steelheads of the OHL before turning pro. As a member of the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers this season, Schwindt had 40 points in 71 games, and was even able to make his NHL debut, skating in three games for Florida. As far as the draft picks in this trade go, the 2025 first-round pick headed to Calgary is lottery protected, and if those conditions apply, their 2026 first-round pick will be sent instead. The fourth-round pick headed to Florida hinges on that condition as well. Simply, if Florida’s 2025 first is not protected, it will be sent to Calgary and Calgary’s 2025 fourth is sent back. If Florida’s 2025 first is protected, they will send their 2026 first instead and Calgary will send their 2026 fourth back instead.
So, for the readers, in these early stages, who seems to be the winner of this trade? Will it be Florida with their guaranteed reward of eight years of Matthew Tkachuk and a fourth-round pick? Or will it be Calgary, who received two stars that have every right to walk away after next season, as well as a first-round pick and a prospect? Of course, there are plenty of factors that can affect how the deal is viewed long-term, but for right now, we ask you, who came out on top? We encourage you to vote and continue the debate with your friends and family as well.
Full Trade:
Calgary Receives: Huberdeau, Weegar, Schwindt, 2025 lottery-protected first-round pick (or unprotected 2026 first-round pick)
Florida Receives: Tkachuk, 2025 or 2026 fourth-round pick
App users, click here to vote.
Panthers Expected To Name Jamie Kompon As Assistant Coach
- The Panthers are set to hire Jamie Kompon as an assistant coach, reports Fox Sports Midwest’s Andy Strickland (Twitter link). The 55-year-old is no stranger to working behind an NHL bench having been an NHL assistant for all but two years dating back to 1997; those two years when he wasn’t in the NHL came when he was the head coach of WHL Portland. Kompon had spent the last six seasons with Winnipeg, working with Paul Maurice for most of that time so Maurice will have someone he’s quite familiar with as he embarks on his first season at the helm in Florida.
Notes From The Calgary-Florida Trade
Friday’s trade that saw the Flames send winger Matthew Tkachuk to Florida along with a 2025 conditional fourth-round pick for Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt, and a lottery-protected 2025 first-round pick certainly was a blockbuster one that dramatically shakes things up for both teams. Here are some additional news and notes from the swap.
- The swap was completed as a sign-and-trade which meant Tkachuk re-signed with Calgary before being traded to Florida. That means that Florida doesn’t get the second buyout window that they would have received had Tkachuk signed with the Panthers. That said, had Florida signed him, they’d have been limited to a seven-year term because he wasn’t on their reserve list at the trade deadline. Calgary will still get their second buyout window once RFAs Matthew Phillips, Andrew Mangiapane, and Oliver Kylington re-sign.
- Per CapFriendly (Twitter link), the condition on the fourth-round pick that Florida is receiving is tied to the lottery protections on the 2025 first-round selection. If the Panthers’ pick in 2025 is in the lottery and thus doesn’t convey until 2026, the fourth-round pick will also be moved to 2026.
- According to TSN’s StatsCentre (Twitter link), this swap is only the second one in NHL history that sees a pair of 100-point players from the previous season being traded for each other. The other was the move that saw Wayne Gretzky go to Los Angeles back in 1988 with Jimmy Carson going to Edmonton as part of the swap.
- Prior to the trade, the Panthers had held extension talks with Huberdeau, reports George Richards of Florida Hockey Now. There had been an expectation he’d sign a long-term agreement close to the $10MM that Aleksander Barkov is receiving next season as his new deal kicks in but clearly, GM Bill Zito preferred to allocate that money to Tkachuk instead.
Florida Panthers Acquire, Extend Matthew Tkachuk
The Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames have completed a massive, blockbuster trade.
The teams have each announced the swap: Matthew Tkachuk and a conditional fourth-round pick are going to the Florida Panthers, while Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt, and a lottery-protected 2025 first-round pick will head to Calgary.
With the trade completed, the Panthers announced that Tkachuk has agreed to an eight-year extension carrying a $9.5MM average annual value. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that the breakdown of Tkachuk’s contract each season is uniform – a base salary of $1MM and a signing bonus of $8.5MM.
That settles the Tkachuk contract situation and closes off any talk of Tkachuk joining the St. Louis Blues, which had been heavily rumored in the days leading up to this trade.
Overall, this is the sort of trade that we just don’t see all that often. It involves three superstar players, two wingers who crossed the 100-point threshold last season and one late-blooming defenseman who has blossomed into a true top-pairing, all-situations minutes-eater. A trade involving three stars doesn’t happen very often, making this swap all the more interesting to unpack.
For the Flames, the rationale for making this deal was quite simple. The team had barely any time to recover from the loss of Johnny Gaudreau to the Columbus Blue Jackets before Tkachuk informed them of his intentions to test free agency in a year’s time. GM Brad Treliving was backed into a corner, and he needed to find a way to revive his team’s competitive prospects despite his leverage decreasing and assets’ values dwindling. This trade is Treliving’s way of jump-starting the Flames’ hopes for next season after a nightmarish start to their offseason.
One could very easily argue that, on a player-for-player basis, the Flames got significantly better through this trade. Yes, Tkachuk is a superstar, combining incredible skill with physicality and peskiness to provide a package of tools few players can rival. On a line with Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm, Tkachuk smashed past his career highs in 2021-22, scoring 42 goals and 104 points. But in exchange for Tkachuk, the Flames are getting a player who also blew past his career highs and reached new heights in production – Huberdeau. In 80 games, Huberdeau scored 30 goals and 115 points, helping power a Panthers offense that scored at will. And it’s not just offense with him either, Huberdeau also saw nearly two minutes of short-handed ice time per game and has made great strides in refining his 200-foot game.
But that’s not all the Flames are getting. They’re also receiving Mackenzie Weegar, a 28-year-old former seventh-round pick who’s quickly risen to be one of the most reliable, impactful, underrated two-way defensemen in hockey. Weegar scored 44 points this season and averaged 2:46 in short-handed ice-time per game. When Aaron Ekblad was struggling to stay in the lineup, Weegar became a true number-one defenseman on the best regular-season team in hockey, a true feat. It’s fair to call Weegar a number-one defenseman and he should instantly be expected to slot into that role on an already talented Flames blueline.
In addition to Weegar, the Flames are getting prospect center, Schwindt. Schwindt is 21 years old and was drafted 81st overall at the 2019 draft. The former Mississauga Steelheads star has adjusted well to professional hockey, and had 40 points in 70 games as a rookie in the AHL. Schwindt represents the future-oriented part of the return, along with the lottery-protected 2025 first-round pick the Flames also received from the Panthers.
So, for Calgary, this trade works on two levels. On one level, it helps them recover from the loss of Gaudreau and compete for a Stanley Cup next season. They are adding an MVP-level, line-driving, 100-plus point winger to replace their lost 100-point winger. They’re also adding a minute-munching, all-situations number-one defenseman as well. Instantly, their team is better. They also receive a solid prospect to develop at their new Calgary-based AHL affiliate, and a nice first-round pick as well.
The true beauty of this trade for Calgary, though, is on its second level. See, this trade gives Treliving something that is all too rare in today’s flat cap world: flexibility. Let’s say, for whatever reason, Huberdeau and Weegar aren’t great fits. The team could struggle out the gate, and it could become clear that expecting the 2022-23 Flames to compete for a Stanley Cup is unrealistic. Well, if that ends up happening, Treliving will have Huberdeau and Weegar on expiring contracts. He will be able to immediately pivot to a rebuilding planfor his club and jump-start it with two players who will likely be the most coveted assets on the deadline trade market.
Treliving would be able to, essentially, orchestrate an auction for Huberdeau and Weegar’s services next season and accumulate a significant stockpile of draft picks and prospects in the process. When added on to the prospect and draft pick already received in this deal, it’s not a bad way to begin an organizational reset, especially when it comes at the cost of a player who had already communicated his intentions to leave in free agency. So for Treliving, this trade gives him and the entire Flames organization the flexibility to be able to effectively pursue either a cup-or-bust competitive window or a future-oriented reset.
Yes, there is some risk for the Flames, there’s no doubt about that. If a rebuild is, in fact, off the table, then adding two players with just a single year of team control each as the main return for Tkachuk is a gamble. If Weegar and Huberdeau both leave as free agents next summer, and the Flames don’t win a Stanley Cup, the initial good feelings generated from this trade could evaporate. But for a Calgary team that badly needed optimism and direction after such a bad month, this is the sort of gamble they’re prepared to make.
From the Panthers’ side of the equation, the motivations behind making this trade are a bit less immediately clear. This is a team that just won the President’s Trophy, so swapping one superstar winger for another at the cost of a top-pairing defenseman might not seem like the wisest choice, especially when they need to surrender a talented prospect and a first-rounder for their trouble. But one look at the Panthers’ cap sheet can give a bit more insight into why GM Bill Zito and the Panthers made this swap.
With major cap hits for Aleksander Barkov, Sergei Bobrovsky, Ekblad, and Sam Reinhart already on the books, the Panthers were looking at a very realistic scenario that either Huberdeau, Weegar, or even both would leave as free agents next summer. That was seen as a necessary risk for a team intent on winning the Stanley Cup, of course, but Zito seemingly decided that that risk was too much to bear. So, he decided to trade both Huberdeau and Weegar at a time when they were still extremely valuable assets in order to secure a younger superstar winger who he can lock into a long-term deal.
With Weegar gone and Tkachuk swapped for Huberdeau, it’s difficult to say that the Panthers are an improved team for next season. But if this trade as well as the departure of interim head coach Andrew Brunette tells us anything, it’s that the Panthers were extremely displeased with their second-round loss at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Panthers clearly believe that they need a change in how their group plays, to play with more physicality, fire, and passion. There are few 100-point wingers who offer those three attributes more plentifully than Tkachuk, and even at this steep price, it’s easy to understand why Zito wanted him in Sunrise. If his presence in the lineup and locker room can help augment their team’s identity, it’ll be assets well spent.
This trade will be an extremely interesting one to track, and the storylines it creates could dominate the hockey headlines for months to come. Tkachuk is now in the same division as his brother, Brady, who captains the Ottawa Senators. The Flames have recently had to deal with questions over their ability to retain star players, and they’ve now added two star players who will, in just a year’s time, be free agents. Will the Flames be able to keep them? Will the new-look Flames be as good as last year’s club? Will Zito’s no-holds-barred chase of superstar talent, at the cost of the team’s first-round picks for the next three seasons, result in a Stanley Cup victory for the Panthers?
Those are definitely questions to ponder, and it’ll be extremely interesting to see how they end up answered.
Sportsnet’s Eric Francis was first on the trade. Pictures courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Florida Panthers Sign Chris Tierney
July 19: The Panthers have now officially announced the signing.
July 16: The Panthers have signed center Chris Tierney, per CapFriendly, who is the second former Ottawa Senator they’ve taken a chance on this offseason, after their earlier signing of Colin White. While we are waiting on the official announcement of the deal, CapFriendly has details on the finances. Tierney is getting a one-year, $750K two-way deal with a hefty $400K AHL salary.
Tierney comes from the Senators organization, and it was there that he was once viewed as a foundational part of their rebuild, a potential middle-six staple for many years. Tierney arrived in Ottawa through the Erik Karlsson trade and was coming off of an impressive year in San Jose where he had 17 goals and 40 points. Tierney’s first year in Ottawa was impressive, and although he only had nine goals he finished with 48 points. From that point, Tierney steadily declined in offensive production, battling injuries along the way, and got to the point where he could only muster 18 points in 70 games, as he did in 2021-22.
Tierney’s two-way game had always been his calling card, but his reliability on that front suffered as well. Tierney’s once-reliable win rate at the face-off dot dipped below 50% and Tierney’s time on the Senators’ penalty kill, where he was once a fixture, all but evaporated. Tierney is only 28 years old, so there is still room for him to bounce back, and he heads to Florida with a chance to re-emerge as an impactful NHL player.
The Panthers have had success in reviving the careers of former Ottawa Senators, just one look at Anthony Duclair’s numbers in Florida confirm that. Tierney’s signing gives him a chance to follow in Duclair’s footsteps and re-establish himself as an NHL option on the Panthers.
Montreal Canadiens Sign Sam Montembeault
Today, Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes announced that the team has agreed to terms on a two-year, one-way contract with goalie Sam Montembeault. The contract will take him to his first eligible year of unrestricted free agency in 2024. The Athletic’s Marc Antoine Godin reports the deal is worth $1MM per season.
Montembeault found his way to Montreal at the beginning of 2021-22 when the team claimed him off waivers from the Florida Panthers. With Carey Price’s nagging knee injury keeping him out for the vast majority of 2021-22, Montembeault played in 38 games for Montreal this year, more than doubling his previous total of 25 with Florida. Serving as the backup to Jake Allen and the starter for brief periods when Allen was injured, Montembeault had a season to forget with an 8-18-6 record, .891 save percentage, and 3.77 goals against average along with one shutout.
The 2015 third-round pick is still relatively young in goalie years at 25, though, and there may be a small bit of untapped potential in the Quebec native. He’s yet to show it at the NHL level, though, as his save percentage hasn’t hit .900 in any of the three seasons he’s appeared in.
Montembeault’s role this season will once again depend entirely on the health of Price, barring a trade in the Montreal crease. If Price is able to battle back from what’s become an increasingly serious knee ailment to start the 2022-23 season on time, Montembeault and his seven-figure price tag would almost certainly pass through waivers unclaimed.
Florida Panthers Sign Michael Del Zotto
After being bought out on Tuesday, veteran defenseman Michael Del Zotto has found a new landing spot. The Florida Panthers have announced that they have signed Del Zotto to a one-year, two-way contract. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Del Zotto is the latest former Ottawa Senator to head to the Sunshine State, joining recent Panthers signings Colin White, Chris Tierney, and Rudolfs Balcers.
Del Zotto, 32, is a veteran of over 700 NHL games, and he is now on the ninth team of his NHL career. Del Zotto split time between the NHL and AHL levels in 2021-22, finding great success at the AHL level with the Belleville Senators while struggling to live up to his $2MM cap hit in Ottawa. Del Zotto had 27 points in 26 games in Belleville and 13 points in 26 games in Ottawa.
Del Zotto’s calling card has always been his ability to move the puck, and that’s what he’s being signed by Florida in order to provide. As it’s a two-way deal, Del Zotto will likely see time in both the AHL and NHL next season, although he could be a top-priority injury fill-in should one of the more talented Panthers defenders get injured.
As a cheap depth signing, Del Zotto is a wise add for a team that wants to improve on last season’s campaign, a year that resulted in both a President’s Trophy as well as a mightily disappointing second-round exit. Del Zotto will compete for opportunities against Marc Staal, Lucas Carlsson, and Anthony Bitetto, among others.
Florida Panthers Sign Evan Nause, Gerry Mahyew
The Florida Panthers have signed prospect Evan Nause to his three-year entry-level contract, a year after he was selected 56th overall in the 2021 NHL Draft. General manager Bill Zito released a short statement:
Evan is a talented young defenseman who has flourished in his two seasons in junior hockey. We’re pleased to have him in our system and are looking forward to watching him continue to develop.
Nause, 19, was a huge part of the Quebec Remparts success this season, scoring 46 points in 59 games while using his long reach to control the game from the back end. When Scott Wheeler of The Athletic detailed the Panthers’ prospect pool earlier this year, he put the QMJHL defenseman seventh, noting that the team had been asking a lot of him in his own end.
That development at the defensive end of the rink will be the key for Neuse, as he likely won’t play a huge offensive role if he makes it to the NHL, even if he is performing well in junior at that end. It does beg the question of whether the Panthers would actually prefer him to be in the AHL this season but since he is still just 19, he isn’t eligible for that.
Luckily, this also means that his entry-level deal won’t kick in this season (unless he somehow makes the Panthers roster out of camp), sliding forward and starting in 2023-24.
A few minutes later, the team also announced a contract for minor league forward Gerald Mayhew. The two sides have agreed on a one-year, two-way contract for the 29-year-old.
Mayhew is one of the most consistent goal-scorers in the minor leagues and actually has a history of scoring at the NHL level as well. In 57 career games he has 13 goals, including five in just 15 contests this season with the Anaheim Ducks. While he shouldn’t be considered an impact player at this point, his addition certainly gives the Panthers a bit of extra scoring punch among their depth options.