It’s never too early to start thinking about the trade deadline, despite being three months away. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic agrees, touching on what the Florida Panthers might do to improve their roster between now and March 7 (Subscription Article).
The defending Stanley Cup champions likely don’t have many complaints as they sit second in the Atlantic Division and fifth in the Eastern Conference. The only glaring issue for the Panthers this season is the middling defense as the team sits 25th in GA/G at 3.20. It was always going to be difficult for Florida to recover from the departures of Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Still, they’ll want to add a top-four defenseman over the next three months.
The Panthers have some flexibility at the trade deadline with a projected cap space of $5.47MM. This should allow the organization to bring in a rental option for the home stretch of the regular season and the playoffs. Florida could get creative and look beyond this season for their blue line, especially considering that longtime defenseman Aaron Ekblad becomes an unrestricted free agent after this season.