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Spencer Knight

Spencer Knight Enters NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program

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According to a joint statement from the NHL and NHLPA Thursday, Florida Panthers goaltender Spencer Knight has entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program and will be unavailable to the Panthers for an indefinite period while he receives care.

The announcement comes after Knight was assigned to the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers on Wednesday, in a move most assumed was meant to purely clear salary cap space for Anthony Duclair’s return to the lineup.

Knight will continue to be paid while receiving treatment and will rejoin the Panthers when he’s cleared to return to on-ice competition by program administrators.

Knight, Florida’s 2019 first-round draft pick, is supplanting himself as a high-end tandem netminder despite being just 21 years old. In 21 appearances (19 starts) this season, Knight has a 9-8-3 record, a .901 save percentage, and a shutout. He’d appeared just four times since January 1, however, as a variety of injuries and illnesses had kept him out of the lineup.

Alex Lyon, who has a .887 save percentage in six NHL appearances this year, will back up starter Sergei Bobrovsky for the time being as the Panthers continue to chase a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

PHR extends our wishes to Knight that he gets the support he needs.

Florida Panthers Reassign Spencer Knight, Grigori Denisenko

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The Florida Panthers announced Wednesday that the team has reassigned goalie Spencer Knight and winger Grigori Denisenko to the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers. Alex Lyon has been recalled to replace Knight’s spot on the roster.

While some eyebrows might raise at Knight getting demoted to the minors, this is purely a cap-related transaction. With winger Anthony Duclair expected to make his season debut Friday as he returns from an Achilles tear, the Panthers need to scratch and claw for every dime of cap space possible in order to take Duclair’s $3MM cap hit off long-term injured reserve.

Reassigning Knight, Denisenko, and Chris Tierney, who Florida waived hours ago, would free up an additional $2.6MM in space to bring their projected cap hit down to roughly $85.1MM. While over the $82.5MM Upper Limit, Patric Hornqvist’s $5.3MM cap hit remains on LTIR to keep them compliant.

While Knight will surely return after the Panthers’ cap situation is resolved, it’s not a guarantee Denisenko receives an immediate call-up. The 15th overall pick in 2018 has again been limited to a fourth-line role and has three assists in 17 games with Florida this year.

Lyon has made six appearances for the Panthers in 2022-23, recording a .887 save percentage and a 3-2-1 record.

Injury Notes: Bennett, Jarry, Golden Knights, Backstrom, Klingberg

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Unfortunately, there’s a lot of minor injury news to report from tonight’s games. We start in Florida, where head coach Paul Maurice said pregame that Sam Bennett wouldn’t be in the lineup when they take on the Penguins tonight.

Bennett took an awkward fall in yesterday night’s loss to the Rangers, immediately leaving the game and staying in the room through the first intermission. It didn’t hold him out of the rest of the game, however, as he would later return. While he won’t suit up tonight, it does seem to be a short-term absence for Bennett, who’s been in and out of the lineup over the past month with some minor injury concerns. Eetu Luostarinen, who’s impressed with 10 goals and 22 points in 49 games this year, slides into the top six with Bennett out.

  • After leaving injured reserve a few days ago, Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry is back out of the lineup with an injury. His absence leaves both Pittsburgh and Florida without backup goalies on the bench for tonight’s game, as Spencer Knight was unexpectedly still unable to play and was a late absence from the Florida lineup. It’s hopefully a short-term absence for Jarry, who’s been spectacular with a .921 save percentage in 27 appearances for the Penguins this year.
  • There’s some positive news on Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone, says ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. While he’ll be out through the All-Star break as expected, his back issue is different than the one that plagued him throughout last season, greatly reducing the likelihood of his long-term career being affected. Kaplan also says defenseman Shea Theodore, who’s been out since early December with an undisclosed injury, is an option for Friday’s game against the Rangers.
  • Days after returning from significant hip surgery recovery, Nicklas Backstrom is back out of the Washington Capitals lineup with a non-COVID illness and is day-to-day. The 35-year-old has three assists in seven games since returning to the lineup.
  • The Anaheim Ducks will also be down a player due to illness: defenseman John Klingberg. 25-year-old call-up Colton White moves into Anaheim’s top-four in Klingberg’s absence, playing on his off-side. Klingberg has just 15 points in 40 games this season, a career-low as he’s destined for free agency once again this offseason.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Canucks, Knight

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The NHL released its Three Stars for last week, with Zach Hyman leading the way. The Edmonton Oilers swiss army knife had four goals and nine points in three games. Hyman has already flown past the 54 points he had last season and with every point is setting a new career high. It’s been an incredible run for the 30, who has been everything the Oilers hoped for (and more) when they signed him to a seven-year, $38.5MM deal in 2021.

Second and third place went to Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Trevor Zegras of the Anaheim Ducks, two players in very different stages of their careers. Stamkos reached the 500-goal mark last week, joining just 46 other players in the history of the NHL and essentially sealing his future in the Hall of Fame (if it was ever in doubt). Zegras, meanwhile, put up eight points in four games, taking his career total to 114. He’s got quite a way to catch the Lightning captain, but Zegras continues to excite fans every time he touches the puck.

  • The Vancouver Canucks now have three head coaches on the books, as they are still paying Travis Green, the bench boss that preceded the recently-fired Bruce Boudreau. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that Tocchet’s deal is for two years and carries a $2.75MM salary, meaning altogether, the team is forking out $7.5MM this season for head coaches.
  • The Florida Panthers have swapped Mack Guzda and Spencer Knight once again, with the latter coming back up to the NHL. Knight hasn’t played in the NHL since January 8, but did quite well in his two-game conditioning stint, recording a 23-save shutout for the Charlotte Checkers in his first AHL game since last season.

Florida Panthers Loan Spencer Knight To AHL

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8:05 PM: According to CapFriendly, veteran forward Eric Staal was placed on injured reserve today, making room for the recall of Guzda. Staal lands on injured reserve after leaving yesterday’s game after a big reverse hit from Mike Matheson. Matheson earned a fine for the hit earlier today.

4:16 PM: It’s been a wild 24 hours for goaltending in South Florida, as Sergei Bobrovsky left last night’s game against the Montreal Canadiens due to injury. Reigning Calder Cup champion Alex Lyon was forced into action, and he guided his team to a victory. Now, it seems there could be some more stability coming to the team’s equation in the crease.

The Panthers have announced that netminder Spencer Knight has been loaned to the team’s AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers. The move has been made presumably with the intention of Knight staying in the American League for conditioning purposes. He’s working his way back from an injury that landed him on injured reserve ten days ago.

Knight has been solid this season even as the Panthers team around him has regressed. Through 19 games played, he has posted a .906 save percentage. He returns to the AHL level for the first time since last season, when he spent a total of eleven games in Charlotte. In his last tenure there he went 7-4 with a .905 save percentage.

With Bobrovsky’s health status still unclear, getting Knight back to full health will be crucial as the Panthers look to build momentum in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Along with Knight’s departure to the AHL comes the recall of netminder Mack Guzda to the Panthers’ roster. This recall is presumably of the emergency variety, as the Panthers currently don’t have room on their active roster for a third goalie.

Guzda, 22, is in the midst of his first professional season. He’s spent the entirety of this year in Charlotte, and has a 9-4-2 record and .908 save percentage in 16 games played for the Checkers. He’ll be expected to back up Lyon should Bobrovsky not be ready in time for Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Wild.

Florida Panthers Place Spencer Knight On Injured Reserve

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Florida Panthers goaltender Spencer Knight is headed for injured reserve with an undisclosed injury, as reported by Florida Hockey Now’s Colby Guy. The team also announced Tuesday afternoon that they recalled Alex Lyon from the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers to replace Knight on the active roster.

In a highly disappointing season for the Panthers, the play of the 21-year-old Knight has been a bright spot. He’s been markedly better than Sergei Bobrovsky, maintaining a 9-7-3 record despite the team’s record being below .500. Knight’s .906 save percentage is also more than 10 points higher than Bobrovsky’s .895 mark.

Based on the team’s messaging, it’s unclear how long we can expect Knight to stay on injured reserve. The only information head coach Paul Maurice gave today was that Knight isn’t “100 percent” and that the team will “get him checked out.”

In the meantime, expect the Panthers to do everything they can to get their $10MM man in Bobrovsky back on track. He’s been largely inconsistent throughout his mega-contract with Florida, but he showed signs of life last season. Unfortunately for the Panthers, he hasn’t been able to make it two strong seasons in a row.

Lyon, 30, remains among the better veteran third-string options in hockey. A defending Calder Cup champion with the Chicago Wolves, Lyon also brings 24 games of NHL experience to the Panthers bench. He has a .909 save percentage and a 9-8-2 record with Charlotte this season.

Evening Notes: Knight, Chychrun, Clark

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The Florida Panthers recently re-signed goalie Spencer Knight to a three-year contract with a $4.5MM AAV. The contract raised some eyebrows due to its cost, as Knight’s extension will be more expensive than the recent Jake Oettinger deal, despite the fact that Oettinger seems to have firmly established himself as a quality starting netminder while Knight had an up-and-down 2021-22. Now that a few days have passed since the signing, though, we have some more context on why the Panthers felt comfortable taking a leap of faith with their extremely talented (but still relatively unproven) young netminder.

As Pierre LeBrun reported on TSN’s Insider Trading, the Panthers were “legitimately worried” about the possibility of another team offer sheeting Knight next summer, when he would have been a restricted free agent. The Panthers, who are paying starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky $10MM AAV through the 2025-26 season, may not have been in a strong enough cap position to retain Knight at what his offer sheet may have cost. So, rather than risk losing the goalie they seem to firmly believe is their long-term future in net, the Panthers decided to sign Knight to this expensive bridge contract in order to ensure he remains in Sunrise for the foreseeable future.

Now, for some other notes from across the NHL:

  • In another piece of information reported on today’s Insider Trading segment, TSN’s Darren Dreger shed some more light on the current situation with Jakob Chychrun and the Arizona Coyotes. Chychrun recently spoke on his desire to be traded to a contending team, and Dreger has reported that leaguewide trade interest in Chychrun is “intensifying.” Dreger specifically names the Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues, and Columbus Blue Jackets as suitors for Chychrun, and notes that the Coyotes are apparently more willing to “take on a contract or contracts” in order to facilitate a deal. Given the issues the above-listed teams are facing with the flat salary cap, it seems that the biggest barrier to a Chychrun deal will be the complicated cap situation of the involved teams rather than the trade compensation package that will need to be agreed upon.
  • The Montreal Canadiens have re-shaped the look of their organization under Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes’ new management, both on and off the ice. With the season about to begin, the Canadiens have made another off-ice move. In an interview on former NHLer Chris Nilan’s Raw Knuckles podcast, Gorton said that the team would be “bringing on” former New York Rangers executive Gordie Clark. Before his contract was not renewed this summer, Clark had been working for the Rangers for two decades and will bring experience and leadership to this still-growing Canadiens front office.

Florida Panthers Extend Spencer Knight

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The Florida Panthers have locked up their future in net, signing Spencer Knight to a three-year extension. The deal kicks in for the 2023-24 season and will carry an average annual value of $4.5MM. Panthers general manager Bill Zito released a statement:

Spencer is a phenomenal goaltender, as well as an exceptional athlete and person. He has thrived in his professional career, dedicating himself to his training through his first two seasons with our organization. With this extension, we are excited about the present and future of Panthers goaltending.

A three-year extension means Knight’s contract status now lines up with Sergei Bobrovsky, with both expiring after the 2025-26 season. While the team will have to carry a combined $14.5MM cap hit those three years, Knight will still be an RFA in the summer of 2026, meaning a long-term extension can still be worked out with the money that Bobrovsky was earning.

For this year, the 21-year-old netminder is still in the final season of his entry-level contract, despite already being a regular at the NHL level. The 13th overall pick from 2019 played in 32 games for the Panthers last season, registering a .908 save percentage. He also got into 11 games with the Charlotte Checkers to stay fresh, posting a .905 in the AHL.

Incredibly composed in net, Knight is basically the prototype for the modern NHL goaltender. Big and agile with strong positioning, there are few goaltending prospects better. While his results do leave a little bit of room for improvement, the Panthers obviously believe he is the real deal, signing him to a rather expensive bridge deal. He comes in ahead of Jake Oettinger (3 years, $4.0MM AAV), and Carter Hart (3 years, $3.979MM AAV), two other young goaltenders with big expectations.

It will be interesting to see how much Knight starts to take over in Florida, and whether the Panthers will ever consider moving on from Bobrovsky. While he holds a full no-movement clause at the moment, that will change to a 16-team no-trade list in the summer of 2024. It would obviously be difficult to move his massive contract but one thing in the Panthers’ favor is the financial structure. Bobrovsky will have earned $57.5MM of the $70MM deal by the end of 2023-24.

Regardless, locking up Knight at this point was important if they plan on giving him more responsibility this season. A breakout campaign would send his price skyrocketing, and potentially take a bridge deal off the table. Locking him in now is a bit risky, as it assumes he will continue to progress, but there aren’t many goaltenders that would be a better bet.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports

Alex Lyon, Anthony Bitetto Sign With Florida Panthers

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Florida has landed a third-string netminder to serve behind Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight. TSN’s Chris Johnston reports the team has signed depth goalie Alex Lyon. They’ve also added some depth on the back end, adding Anthony Bitetto to a one-year, two-way contract.

Lyon, 29, is fresh off winning the Calder Cup with the Chicago Wolves, where he posted a .923 save percentage in 12 playoff appearances. An undrafted free agent signing out of Yale in 2016, he has been strong in the minor leagues but only appeared 24 times in the NHL.

He may not get any more chances this year but is at least a strong option should one of Bobrovsky or Knight face an injury.

Bitetto meanwhile is in a similar situation, save for the recent Calder Cup win. The 31-year-old defenseman has 197 games under his belt at the NHL level but none of those came in 2021-22. Instead, he split the year between the Hartford Wolf Pack and the San Jose Barracuda, scoring 17 points in 53 games.

If he’s playing regular minutes with the Panthers it is because they are dealing with serious injuries but should represent a stable veteran presence in the AHL.

Snapshots: Knight, Subban, Bourque, Avalanche

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The NHL has named Panthers goaltender Spencer Knight as the Rookie of the Month for April.  The 21-year-old finished up his first full professional campaign on a high note, posting a 2.16 GAA along with a .925 SV% in seven starts for Florida this month.  With veteran Sergei Bobrovsky’s numbers checking in at 3.27 and .893 respectively over that same stretch, Knight has made a strong push for playing time in their upcoming playoff series against Washington.  He’s the second Panther to get the award this season, joining center Anton Lundell who received the honor in January.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Sabres goaltender/surprise anthem singer Malcolm Subban told reporters today, including Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News (Twitter link) that he’d love to return to Buffalo next season. The pending unrestricted free agent was traded to the Sabres in December but got into just four games before suffering a season-ending upper-body injury back in January.  After clearing waivers earlier in the year, it seems likely that Subban’s best fit would be as a third-string netminder and Buffalo will likely have an opening in that spot with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen expected to be up full-time in the NHL next season.
  • Veteran forward Chris Bourque announced (Twitter link) that he is retiring. The 36-year-old played in 51 career NHL games over parts of four seasons with Washington, Pittsburgh, and Boston while spending 13 years in the minors where he’s 20th in all-time AHL scoring with 746 points.  Bourque spent the past three seasons with Ingolstadt in Germany, collecting 134 points in 141 games.
  • Avalanche defenseman Kurtis MacDermid and winger Logan O’Connor avoided any suspensions from the league for their actions against Minnesota on Friday. However, both will be a little lighter in the wallet as the Department of Player Safety announced (Twitter links) that both players received fines worth half of one day’s salary, the maximum allowable under the CBA.  MacDermid was assessed a major penalty and a game misconduct for kneeing winger Marcus Foligno who looked to be seriously injured on the play.  O’Connor, meanwhile, had cross-checked defenseman Dmitry Kulikov although the blueliner was eventually able to return to the game.

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