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FORT LAUDERDALE — There were all kinds of rumors surrounding the Florida Panthers at Friday’s NHL Trade Deadline.
Bill Zito stood pat.
The Panthers, whose already-slim playoff hopes thinned out with a rough start coming out of the Olympic break, were sellers at the deadline.
Only they did not really sell.
“We have a couple of guys on expiring contracts,’’ Paul Maurice said before the Panthers beat the Red Wings 3-1 in Detroit on Friday.
“But if you look at last year, we let those players play that out, and we found a way to bring them back. We like all of them. I think for Bill to have moved on, it would have had to have been something very, very good.
“But we weren’t shedding players to get cap space for another time. We have good players here and we would like them all to stay.’’
The only player Florida traded away before the deadline was defenseman Jeff Petry, a veteran who came to the Panthers in hope of being part of a Stanley Cup championship team for the first time in his career.
Instead, he gets that chance with the Minnesota Wild.
“He’ll move on,” Zito said. “I want to thank him and his family. A wonderful teammate and member of our community. Great people.”
The biggest name to remain with the Panthers was goalie Sergei Bobrovsky — who likely was not going anywhere, anyway.
Although Zito said you have to answer the phone when other general managers call, that does not mean a deal was ever going to happen.
Zito joked that he gets calls about Hall of Famer Roberto Luongo, who heads the team’s goalie department.
“I really think someone in Canada decided Bob would be a good target,” Maurice said about the Bobrovsky rumors. “So, it blew up for about two weeks. … I think there may have been way more on the outside than the inside on that one.”
Florida also kept pending free agent A.J. Greer with Zito saying the Panthers would like to sign both players for next season and beyond.
Which makes a lot of sense.
“We’re not having a rummage sale,’’ he said.
Although the Panthers are out of playoff contention this season, that does not mean the goal line has been moved.
This season is, basically, a blip on the radar.
A reset of sorts.
The Panthers will be back to themselves next season with a healthy Sasha Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, and Brad Marchand ready to lead them.
They will be one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup again next season when things get going once more.
“We would aspire to it but we won’t be that arrogant to think that will just show up at training camp,” Maurice said.
Of course, the Panthers who end this season may not be the Panthers who open up the next one.
New contracts have to be worked out with Bobrovsky and Greer, for instance.
Tkachuk says he and his teammates are going to “wine-and-dine’’ Bobrovsky to convince him to stay.
“They’re going to build him a statue,’’ he said.
Aside from keeping their own, the Panthers should be active this offseason.
Their core intact, the Panthers could make some additions in the summer.
Missing the playoffs may give Florida a first-round draft pick this summer if it falls within the top 10.
Originally traded to Chicago in the Spencer Knight/Seth Jones deal, Florida’s 2026 first-round pick is top-10 protected.
So, if the Panthers land within the top-10, Zito has the option to use it, trade it, or even give it back to Chicago to settle their debt.
Right now, the Panthers have committed their 2026 first-rounder to Chicago, with 2027’s pick going to the Bruins for Marchand. If the Panthers get to keep this year’s pick, everything slides back a year.
Regardless, having a high first-round selection this June is a pretty big trade chip if the Panthers care to use it to bring in a player such as, just throwing this out there, Vincent Trocheck.
The Panthers will be better next year.
Anyone who thinks Florida’s reign is over is likely mistaken.
It’s just taking a breather is all.
“This team is going to be a really good team for a long time,” Sam Bennett, who signed an eight-year contract with the Panthers last summer, said Thursday. “There’s no panic. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, for sure.
“It’s frustrating for sure, but we still have a ton of belief in this team.”
Said Tkachuk: “We’re going to be back at some point, I can promise you that.’’
Agreed on all counts!
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