Florida Panthers General Manager saved from having to make an awful trade by an injury
The Florida Panthers theme this year might be their constant struggle with the salary cap. Already to the ceiling, Florida was forced to sign cheap contracts to older veteran players just to put a complete team on the ice. In fact, at times they have skated with less than the max amount of roster players.
There was discussion of what the Panthers would do once winger Anthony Duclair comes off injured reserve. Once Duclair is activated the Panthers would have to trade Duclair or get rid of someone to clear cap space. Duclair earns $3 million per season.
Well, that idea may not happen just yet and here is why. Patric Hornqvist has now been placed on long-term injured reserve. That saves the Panthers in cap space as Hornqvist currently makes $5.5 million per season. Perhaps this buys Florida a bit more time to try and decide what is in the best interest of their team.
General manager Bill Zito still has some work to do to relieve this team's salary cap struggles. Until then, there isn't many ways to improve the current roster and they've traded away multiple first round picks already. At least now the Panthers will be able to showcase Duclair before they are forced to make a trade.
| POLL | ||
Who will the Panthers end up trading for cap space? | ||
| Anthony Duclair | 19 | 51.4 % |
| Sam Reinhart | 4 | 10.8 % |
| Sam Bennett | 8 | 21.6 % |
| Other | 6 | 16.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
