Panthers Place Nolan Foote, Noah Gregor On Waivers
The Panthers placed forwards Nolan Foote and Noah Gregor on waivers Thursday, per PuckPedia. The move will allow them to be assigned to AHL Charlotte for the Calder Cup Playoffs after they presumably clear tomorrow. Both required waivers for reassignment because they’d each played at least 10 NHL games since they cleared last.
Foote, 25, was a first-round pick back by the Lightning in 2019 but has ended up with their cross-state rivals after failing to ever lock down a full-time NHL role. He was traded to the Devils in the 2020 Blake Coleman swap. He ended up appearing in 30 games over five consecutive seasons for New Jersey but never hit double-digit appearances in any one campaign. That led New Jersey to non-tender him last summer, and he subsequently landed a two-way deal with Florida.
He was never really expected to compete for an NHL job, and for the first several months of the season, he was solely the AHL depth they brought him in to be. In 54 games for Charlotte, he had 14 goals and 18 assists for 32 points. A strong top-nine AHL piece for several years now, with good size at 6’3″ and 196 lbs, Florida’s rash of injuries forced him up onto the NHL roster last month.
Foote ended up skating in a career-high 12 games for the Cats over the last few weeks of the season, notching a goal with a -4 rating while averaging 10:48 per night. He offered up some physicality with 27 hits, but his impacts outside of that were limited. Florida controlled 50.2% of shot attempts but just 43.3% of expected goals when he was on the ice at even strength.
Since Foote has played under 80 NHL games with three years of professional experience and is now at the age-25 cutoff, he’s eligible for Group VI unrestricted free agency this summer. Florida will not be able to retain his rights with a qualifying offer and will instead need to extend him before July 1 if they’re interested in keeping him away from the open market.
As for Gregor, the 27-year-old vet had a slightly more expanded role in Florida this season, again due to injuries ahead of him on the depth chart. He was brought in for training camp on a professional tryout before ultimately signing a two-way deal in the wake of injuries to Aleksander Barkov, Tomáš Nosek, and Matthew Tkachuk in the early going.
As has been the case for the last couple of years, the speedy winger has struggled to generate a strong two-way impact. He did tickle the twine four times in 37 outings for Florida, adding five assists for nine points, but did so with a -10 rating while averaging a career-low 9:34 of ice time per game. He’s never been much of a finisher – in fact, he’s never had a 10% shooting rate in all seven of his NHL seasons. He’s also not throwing the body as much as he used to and had poor possession impacts across the board in 2025-26.
Gregor will be a UFA this summer for the fourth year in a row. He was on a three-year non-tender streak but is now old enough to be a “real” UFA. At this rate, his hopes of landing a one-way deal this summer have likely dried up. Even in Charlotte, he hasn’t been overly impressive with an 11-6–17 scoring line in 25 outings.
Panthers Recall Noah Gregor
The Panthers recalled winger Noah Gregor from AHL Charlotte on Tuesday, according to a team announcement. The veteran of over 300 NHL games has been stashed in the minors for over two months after clearing waivers in January, but now returns under emergency conditions to give Florida 12 forwards for their contest against the Kraken tonight.
Results don’t matter much for the Panthers at this point. The back-to-back Stanley Cup champions are ticketed to become the first reigning winners to miss the playoffs since the Kings in 2015. Still, their current injury list, particularly among forwards, is the stuff of nightmares. In addition to Aleksander Barkov, Jonah Gadjovich, Brad Marchand, and Cole Schwindt all being stashed on long-term injured reserve, they’re without four other names – A.J. Greer due to a suspension, plus Anton Lundell, Sam Reinhart, and Mackie Samoskevich due to undisclosed, day-to-day injuries. That’s five out of their regular top-nine forwards when healthy, in addition to multiple serviceable depth pieces.
Gregor will thus get the call in a fourth-line role until Florida can get some bodies back. He opened camp with Florida on a professional tryout contract before landing a two-way deal at the beginning of the regular season. He was limited to a goal and two assists in 24 games before being waived after the holiday break. Down in Charlotte for his first minor-league action in four years, the speedy depth winger has tallied 11 goals and 17 points in 25 outings.
The 27-year-old Gregor will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. Once a 10-goal, 20-point piece with the Sharks earlier in the decade, he’s averaged only seven goals and 13 points per 82 games over his last three NHL seasons with stops in Toronto, Ottawa, a second stint in San Jose, and now Florida. If the Cats bring him back this summer, it’ll almost certainly be on another two-way pact.
Panthers Reassign Noah Gregor
The Panthers announced this morning that they reassigned forward Noah Gregor to AHL Charlotte. They’re now left with an open roster spot, which could be earmarked for Brad Marchand to come off injured reserve or for Matthew Tkachuk to come off long-term injured reserve, although the latter move would require clearing more cap space.
Gregor, 27, departs Florida after appearing just twice in the Cats’ last 11 games. He was placed on waivers over a week ago and cleared, but wasn’t immediately sent to Charlotte. Since he’s still within a 30-day window from clearing waivers, he can be sent down today without needing to go through the process again.
The Alberta native is in his seventh NHL season and has accumulated over 300 games of experience. However, after a tumultuous couple of campaigns, it appears he’s on the path toward being more of a call-up option than a bottom-six fixture. The 6’0″, 201-lb winger’s high-end speed and skating have always carried some intrigue, but he’s rarely converted it into meaningful production, only topping the 20-point mark once with the Sharks back in 2021-22.
Now, Florida is his fourth stop in the past three seasons. He’s also logged time with the Maple Leafs and Senators since 2023 and had a second stint in San Jose, needing PTOs to land contracts late in the offseason twice during that span. His waiver placement earlier this month was the first one of his career, signaling a more formative end to his days as a bottom-six/press box lock.
In 24 games this season, Gregor has scored once and added only two assists while averaging 8:05 of ice time per game. He is averaging a career-low 1.13 hits per game and has been a significant drag on Florida’s possession game, controlling 46.0% of shot attempts at 5-on-5 despite starting nearly 60% of his shifts in the offensive end. It was abundantly clear he would be the next odd man out when the Cats needed a roster spot.
Noah Gregor Clears Waivers
Saturday: Gregor was not claimed on waivers according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. He can now be sent down to AHL Charlotte whenever a roster spot is needed to activate Tkachuk.
Friday: The Panthers are shaking up their depth forward group after a tough-to-swallow blowout loss. PuckPedia reports that the club has placed winger Noah Gregor on waivers.
Gregor had appeared in back-to-back games for the Cats after sitting out five straight. Florida’s fourth line of him, Luke Kunin, and Jack Studnicka had a garish showing in the 6-2 loss to Montreal, failing to generate any expected goals at 5-on-5 while getting outscored 2-0 in less than five minutes of ice time.
His waiver placement should serve a dual purpose of opening a roster spot for Matthew Tkachuk, who’s been skating for a few days now and should be ready to come off long-term injured reserve and make his season debut in the near future. That’s must-hear news for a Florida squad that’s now 3-5-1 in its last nine, losing ground in a tight Eastern Conference playoff race. Injuries have taken an incredible toll on their record, which now stands at 22-18-3, leaving the two-time defending champs three points out of a playoff spot.
As for Gregor, the 27-year-old could bounce to his fifth NHL organization if he’s claimed off the wire. Non-tendered by the Sharks last year, he went unsigned before landing a professional tryout with the Cats in September and converting that into a two-way deal at the end of training camp. He’s been in and out of the lineup as a 12th/13th forward option with Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Tomas Nosek, and more missing all or most of the year.
In 24 appearances, the high-motor depth option has one goal and two assists with a -7 rating. He’s averaged just 8:05 per night while posting an ugly 45.8% shot attempt share despite receiving sheltered offensive zone starts. Especially seeing as he’s on a two-way deal, he was always going to be one of the first names to hit waivers if Florida needed a roster spot.
For a league-minimum price tag, there might be some interest in Gregor, who has 73 points in 317 career NHL games dating back to his debut in San Jose in 2019-20.
Florida Panthers’ Jonah Gadjovich To Undergo Surgery, Will Miss Three Months
Florida Panthers forward Jonah Gadjovich will undergo surgery as part of his recovery from his upper-body injury suffered on Oct. 25 against the Vegas Golden Knights, relays Katie Engleson, the Panthers’ rinkside reporter.
It’s a tough break for Gadjovich, who had played in all 10 of the Panthers’ games leading up to his injury. Gadjovich skated in just 42 regular-season games in 2024-25, but the injuries the Panthers have already suffered up front looked to have paved the way for Gadjovich to play a more regular role in 2025-26. Now, due to this injury, he’ll miss that opportunity to get to play NHL games on a more regular basis than he has had in the past.
The 27-year-old has been part of the Panthers’ back-to-back Stanley Cup championship teams, originally arriving in the organization on an AHL contract before he was signed to a full NHL deal.
He subsequently earned a two-year, one-way league minimum extension, and signed an additional two-year, one-way $905K AAV contract extension on Oct. 12. That deal included a $10K signing bonus for its first year, the first signing bonus Gadjovich has received since the standard bonuses included in his entry-level contract.
A grinder by trade, the 6’3″ winger ranks last in time-on-ice per game among all Panthers forwards this season, averaging under eight minutes per contest with no special-teams usage. He does have three assists, though, and despite his limited ice time ranks fourth among Panthers forwards in hits with 30.
Gadjovich provides a relentless, physical element to the Panthers’ fourth line, one they’ll now have to be without for the next few months. In Gadjovich’s vacated fourth-line right-wing spot, the Panthers have played forward Noah Gregor. Gregor is playing just about the same amount of ice time, although the Panthers did utilize him on the penalty kill on Oct. 28 and Nov. 4.
This unfortunate injury suffered by Gadjovich does have potentially significant implications for Gregor. The 27-year-old entered the season on a PTO, and parlayed that into a one-year, two-way deal carrying a $775K NHL value and $450K AHL salary. With Gadjovich, who is Gregor’s primary competitor for NHL ice time, now sidelined for a few months, Gregor has a clear chance to play regular NHL games for the Panthers.
With that opportunity, Gregor, who has not played in the AHL since 2021, could very well earn the right to remain an NHL player for another season. By putting forward solid performances in this fourth-line NHL role, he could even position himself to once again receive a one-way contract next season. Gregor played on one-way deals from 2022-23 through 2024-25.
The Panthers have struggled with significant injuries in 2025-26, and have not looked nearly as dominant so far as a result. The loss of Gadjovich is a far more manageable one for the team to absorb compared to the injuries suffered by Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, but this is nonetheless an unfortunate development for a team that is badly in need of some positive luck when it comes to injuries.
Photos courtesy of Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
Panthers Sign Noah Gregor To Two-Way Deal
The Panthers announced Tuesday that they’ve agreed to terms with forward Noah Gregor on a two-way contract. He had been in training camp on a professional tryout agreement. The deal carries an NHL salary of $775K and an AHL salary of $450K, according to PuckPedia. In a pair of corresponding moves, the team also reversed yesterday’s paper demotion of winger Mackie Samoskevich to AHL Charlotte and moved Aleksander Barkov from standard injured reserve to long-term injured reserve, George Richards of Florida Hockey Now reports. Gregor’s contract won’t be registered with the league until those two moves are formalized, as Florida doesn’t have the cap space to add him to the roster until after gaining relief from Barkov’s LTIR placement.
While Gregor wasn’t on the opening night roster that Florida formally registered with the league last night, he will be eligible to play in tonight’s season opener against the Blackhawks. The six-year NHL vet made four preseason appearances for the Cats, scoring a goal and an assist while adding seven hits and a blocked shot in over 17 minutes of ice time per game. He won’t get nearly that much deployment in the regular season. The 27-year-old center has only averaged 12:19 of ice time per game across 293 career contests, and that figure has been trending down over the past few years.
It wasn’t all that surprising to see Gregor need to settle for a tryout. He also required one to land a contract with the Maple Leafs in 2023, and he has now been non-tendered for three consecutive years. That streak will end next offseason as he’ll be eligible for outright unrestricted free agency. The Alberta native is coming off his worst showing since emerging as an NHL regular with the Sharks in 2020. Splitting the year between Ottawa and San Jose, he tied a career-worst -21 rating in 52 appearances while making minimal offensive contributions – just four goals and three assists. While his high-end skating has always generated intrigue, it has rarely translated into a legitimate offensive impact. He’s only hit the 10-goal and 20-point marks once in a single season.
Nonetheless, he showed out well enough in Florida’s camp to earn another deal. The Panthers are in desperate need of cheap forward depth, as they’re virtually capped out despite starting the year with all of Barkov, Tomáš Nosek, and Matthew Tkachuk on long-term injured reserve thanks to the new rule that teams are limited to the previous year’s average salary (~$3.82MM in this case) in LTIR relief per player if their injury isn’t season-ending. After Gregor averaged only 11:06 per game last season, he’ll presumably be in the Cats’ fourth-line rotation along with returnees Jonah Gadjovich and A.J. Greer, late-offseason signing Luke Kunin, and preseason waiver claim Cole Schwindt. The two-way structure indicates he’s a candidate to end up on waivers when Nosek or Tkachuk is ready to return, depending on who comes back first.
As for Samoskevich, his quiet demotion yesterday was essential to Florida’s initial salary cap setup. The team submitted their opening night roster, which excluded the waiver-exempt Samoskevich and included Nosek and Tkachuk on LTIR, but listed Barkov on standard IR. That left the Panthers $4.55MM over the cap but with $4.6MM in relief from Nosek and Tkachuk. That set their initial LTIR capture within $50K of the maximum relief. Moving Barkov to LTIR then opens up an additional $3.82MM in space, which they used to recall Samoskevich (who also carries a $775K cap hit) and sign Gregor. After all those transactions are officially completed, the Panthers will have $2.27MM remaining in their LTIR pool, per PuckPedia.
Samoskevich, Florida’s 2021 first-round pick, will be in tonight’s lineup, presumably in a top-nine role. The 22-year-old finished 11th in Calder Trophy voting for the league’s top rookie last year with 15 goals and 31 points in 72 games.
Today’s moves also officially leave the door open for Barkov to suit up for Florida in the playoffs. He’s expected back sometime between late April and late June after he blew up his right ACL and MCL in his first practice of training camp, requiring surgery.
Panthers To Sign Noah Gregor To PTO
Free agent left-winger Noah Gregor will attend Panthers camp on a professional tryout, according to his dad, Jason Gregor of Edmonton’s Sports 1440.
The 27-year-old Gregor adds another name to the competition for bottom-six jobs in Florida, a group that will be stretched a tad thinner to start the season thanks to the domino effect of Matthew Tkachuk‘s recovery from adductor surgery. They’ve been active in shoring up that depth after getting their trio of big-name extensions done for Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, and Brad Marchand in the days before free agency began. Center Tomas Nosek was also given a one-year extension hours before the market opened, while they picked up right-winger Luke Kunin on a league-minimum contract last month.
Gregor split the 2024-25 season between the Senators and Sharks, working primarily in a fourth-line role and making 52 appearances. He totaled a 4-3–7 scoring line with a -21 rating, the worst offensive production of his career on a per-game basis since entering the league with San Jose six years ago.
Gregor’s calling card has always been his speed, but that took a hit last year. NHL EDGE data shows Gregor averaged 2.0 speed bursts over 20 mph per game, down significantly from 2.75 the year before. He also had 0.52 fewer hits per game and took 0.6 fewer shots on goal per game than he did in 2023-24, when he turned a PTO with the Maple Leafs into a one-year contract and had 12 points in 63 showings. Possession metrics also weren’t kind to Gregor, who controlled only 43.6% of shot attempts at even strength, despite receiving a significantly more sheltered workload defensively compared to his deployment with Toronto.
For his career, Gregor has 70 points in 293 NHL games. He had semi-productive stretches in San Jose’s top nine earlier in his career, averaging nearly 15 minutes per game for them in 2021-22 while recording a career-high 23 points in 63 games, but has now produced 0.20 points per game or fewer in four of his six NHL campaigns.
Gregor faces an uphill battle to earn a roster spot ahead of a known commodity internally like Nosek or a higher-ceiling offensive option in Kunin, especially with a larger group including Jesper Boqvist, Jonah Gadjovich, A.J. Greer, and Mackie Samoskevich also jockeying for position on Florida’s depth chart. There’s still no harm in seeing if he’s rediscovered his skating, an element that would fit well into the Cats’ heavy-checking system, where he’d be a speedier option than Kunin and Nosek.
If Gregor makes the club, it’ll likely be in a press-box role to start. He could also sign a deal and land on waivers, with the hope that he can either rebuild his stock with AHL Charlotte or be claimed by a team in need of experienced forward depth. After being non-tendered for three years in a row, he’s now old enough to be eligible for unrestricted free agency outright next summer.
Oilers Notes: Berezkin, Gregor, Nicholl
Winger Maxim Berezkin is one of the more intriguing players in Edmonton’s prospect pool. The 23-year-old was a fifth-round pick back in 2020, going 138th overall but has become somewhat of a later bloomer after becoming a full-time KHL player three years ago. He’s coming off his best season at that level, one that saw him produce 15 goals and 27 assists in 66 regular season games while adding 14 points in 21 playoff contests with KHL Lokomotiv Yaroslavl as they won the Gagarin Cup.
Berezkin signed a new one-year to remain in the KHL back in May but that shouldn’t be viewed as a sign that he doesn’t want to come to North America. In an interview with Daria Tuboltseva for Vseprosport, he indicated that he still intends to sign with Edmonton but that he felt it would be best for his development to spend this season back home over potentially spending this year in the minors with AHL Bakersfield. Now, whenever he ultimately signs, Berezkin will be capped at a one-year entry-level deal.
More from Edmonton:
- There has been some speculation that the Oilers will be looking at some tryouts heading into training camp. One player who hasn’t had discussions with Edmonton on that front yet is winger Noah Gregor, according to Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal. An Alberta native, Gregor has had to go the PTO route to secure a full contract before and after putting up just four goals and three assists in 52 games last season between Ottawa and San Jose, there’s a good chance he’ll have to settle for a tryout in the coming weeks.
- Prospect Will Nicholl won’t be starting his 2025-26 for quite a while. His junior team, the London Knights of the OHL, announced (Twitter link) that the forward underwent successful upper-body surgery earlier this summer and will miss four to six months. The 19-year-old was a seventh-round pick back in 2024 and had a solid showing last season, picking up 21 goals and 36 assists in 66 games. Edmonton must sign Nicholl by June 1st or relinquish his rights so it’s fair to say the few months he does play this season will be crucial.
Sharks Expected To Non-Tender Noah Gregor
The Sharks will not issue a qualifying offer to center Noah Gregor, per Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News. He will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
This will be Gregor’s third straight offseason with a non-tender. He was initially a fourth-round pick of the Sharks back in 2016 but was not given a qualifying offer by San Jose in 2023, leading to him signing a one-year deal with the Maple Leafs in free agency. Toronto also declined to qualify him, after which he landed with the Senators for the 2024-25 season. The Sharks brought him back to the organization in the deadline deal that saw Fabian Zetterlund head to Ottawa, but his second stint in the Bay Area will be short-lived.
The quick-footed Gregor first arrived in the NHL with the Sharks in the 2019-20 campaign, his first in the pros. While he bounced between the NHL and AHL his first two seasons in the organization, he established himself as a full-timer in 2021-22 with a 23-point showing in 63 games while averaging nearly 15 minutes per night, all of which still stand as career highs. While a proper depth offensive presence at times, he’s yet to provide the scoring punch necessary to elevate himself out of a bottom-six or even fourth-line role.
This season marked something of a new low for Gregor. He never gelled in Ottawa after signing a one-year, $850K deal there when free agency opened. He dealt with injuries and was limited to just six points and a -12 rating in 40 games when healthy, averaging 11:21 per game. He also had just one assist and a minus-nine rating in 12 showings with San Jose after the trade. His non-tender is an unsurprising one as the Sharks look to create roster flexibility for more impactful free agent signings and young players graduating to NHL roles.
While he hasn’t seen AHL action in over three years, a two-way deal seems likely for Gregor on the open market this season following his tough 2024-25 showing and burgeoning journeyman reputation. There’s still some late bloomer potential as he turns 27 in July, but he’ll have to work on rounding out his offensive skillset beyond just strong skating ability.
West Notes: Zary, Barbashev, Howden, Gregor
Second-year Flames forward Connor Zary is facing a suspension after he elbowed Canucks defenseman Elias Pettersson in last night’s shootout loss, per the league’s Department of Player Safety. Officials assessed Zary a minor penalty for interference on the play, which occurred midway through the first period. The Calgary forward laid a retaliatory check on Pettersson after the rearguard laid a heavy hit on Flames center Nazem Kadri, leaving the ice and seemingly making Pettersson’s head the main point of contact (video via B/R Open Ice). Pettersson only took two more shifts before leaving the game entirely in the second period. This will be the first supplemental discipline, including fines, of Zary’s brief NHL career. The 2020 first-rounder is tied for sixth on the team in scoring this season with 12-12–24 in 49 games. He missed most of January and February with a knee injury, which kept him out of 15 games.
Elsewhere in the Western Conference:
- The Golden Knights are getting reinforcements up front. Forwards Ivan Barbashev and Brett Howden will re-enter the lineup tonight against the Blue Jackets, head coach Bruce Cassidy told reporters (including Mark Scheig of The Hockey Writers). Barbashev missed Tuesday’s game against the Penguins due to personal reasons, while Howden sat out with an undisclosed injury. Neither’s absence will stretch into a multi-game one. Both players are among the team’s top 10 scorers, with Barbashev posting 19-22–41 in 53 games and Howden logging 17-13–30 in 62 appearances. Jonas Røndbjerg and Cole Schwindt will exit the lineup as a result of their returns.
- Noah Gregor will kick off his second stint with the Sharks tonight after resolving his work visa issues, per Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now. Gregor, acquired from the Senators in the deadline day Fabian Zetterlund deal, was unavailable for San Jose’s last two games while getting his documentation sorted. The 26-year-old played parts of four seasons for the Sharks from 2019-20 to 2022-23, compiling 26-25–51 in 178 appearances for the club. He’d struggled in Ottawa this year after signing in the Canadian capital as a free agent last summer, posting 4-2–6 in 40 games with a -12 rating.