July 1: The Panthers have officially bought out Darling.
June 30: The Florida Panthers have traded goaltender James Reimer to the Carolina Hurricanes. In return the Panthers will acquire a 2020 sixth-round pick and goaltender Scott Darling, who has been placed on waivers for the purpose of a contract buyout. After the recent retirement of Roberto Luongo this leaves the Panthers with just two minor league goaltenders under contract, likely opening the way for a free agent signing tomorrow. Sergei Bobrovsky is the speculative favorite, though nothing can be official until the free agent period opens.
Darling had two years remaining on his current deal, meaning a buyout will force the Panthers to pay him $4.73MM total over the next four years with the following cap hits:
- 2019-20: $1,233,333
- 2020-21: $2,333,333
- 2021-22: $1,183,333
- 2022-23: $1,183,333
Reimer meanwhile becomes the presumptive starting goaltender in Carolina for the time being, since they too are lacking in NHL experience at the position. Both Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney are set to become unrestricted free agents after failing to work out new contracts, leaving Reimer and one of Anton Forsberg or Alex Nedeljkovic as the tandem for next season. That is of course unless the Hurricanes go after another free agent, and Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets that the team is still interested in bringing back Mrazek or going after Semyon Varlamov.
The 31-year old Reimer struggled last season in Florida, posting just a .900 save percentage in 36 appearances and seeing his goals against average balloon to 3.09. That’s a far cry from the .920 mark he posted in his first season with the Panthers in 2016-17, one that made him look like the eventual successor to Luongo and a long-term option. That’s the goaltender the Hurricanes will hope they can get, one that carried an average Toronto Maple Leafs team to the playoffs in 2013 and even earned Hart Trophy votes. They’ve had success with ex-Maple Leafs before, as McElhinney played excellent after a waiver claim at the start of last season.
Carolina has been one of the more active teams on the trade market so far, making deals to acquire Patrick Marleau (who they then bought out), Erik Haula, Forsberg and Gustav Forsling, while sending Calvin de Haan and others out of town. The team found so much success in the second half of last season and the playoffs, but obviously aren’t content with waiting around for their team to take another run without changes.
The question in Florida now becomes whether they can officially land Bobrovsky—and perhaps his close friend and teammate Artemi Panarin. The team has more than $26MM in cap space to use without any high profile restricted free agents to get under contract. With a new head coach in Joel Quenneville and big moves expected in free agency, it is obvious that GM Dale Tallon is ready to compete for the Stanley Cup right now and will spend quite a bit of money to do it.
Not a bad trade by Carolina. Saves them 1.1 million with Reimer over Darling
Good deal!
Should trade for Jake Allen. I’m sure the Blues would give him to Florida for nothing and include some cash.
Couldn’t the Panthers have just bought out Reimer instead? I must be missing something here. But either way, good luck Carolina with your knew goaltending situation……..and you’ll need all the luck you can get!
Reimer costs more to buyout in 2020-21, when he has a 2.25M signing bonus. The Jerks need a goalie more than they need to sign big fish.
All the best to ya in Carolina James. I’ll have to watch some Canes games know!
Dale Tallon’s thought bubble: Geez, I sure *HOPE* Bread & Bob sign with us, or my ass is grass! Wait! “Sergei” Varlamov, the notorious leak job, *must* be available — I’m saved!
Mac,
Tallon had this team on the right course till Rowe screwes it up. Hence why he stepped back in Talloon is one of the best gms ! He will get them inked tommorrow wait and see dont sleep on the Panthers!
Reimer and Forsberg is a terrible tandem.
At first thought you have to wonder why the Canes wouldn’t just pay either Mrazek or McElhinney the money they’re now paying Reimer, but now it makes sense when you consider how cheap Dundon is. If they had re-signed either of their two goalies, they still would’ve been stuck with buying out Darling. This way they basically got rid of 3 goalies for the price of Reimer. Does it make them a better team? No, but it is alot cheaper.
Did he say Jerks, yeah! Don Cherry had them pegged right.
Don’t know if I would be calling the owner cheap the guy has made some terrible financial moves this past year. So maybe he’s just playing it a little smarter in terms of money. He did try and take on the Marleau contract after all
Guess Elvis is in the house in Columbus !(Elvis Merzlikins) since Bobvrosky aka “BOB” is heading to the beach in Florida. What happened to Kinkaid didn’t see him on Columbus roster on Cap Friendly ?
The owner is cheap and stupid and tries to avoid paying his debts. Ask the AAF creditors.
His team made a fluke run based on the work of the guy he had already fired (Ron Francis) and now he’s dismantling even that.
@Marner#16: Agree with the assessment on Rowe, but if you don’t have 80-90%+ certainty that you can sign a guy, then you’re just *hoping* more than anything, which amounts to playing with fire. I will give him credit for making significant strides to improve the team, even with the expected overpays. Aside from the two teams that apparently want to be below the salary floor, virtually every other GM has overpaid one or more players, and that chaos isn’t done. Bob *really* needs to show what he can do now, otherwise the Disgruntlement-O-Meter might be pegged for the next few years. If the Swamp Kitties don’t show a better defensive effort than what CBJ demonstrated, it could get a little ugly. If they can, they could very well see playoffs in their future. Time will tell. Maybe they could get the Hall-Of-Famer in the TV booth to throw the blueliners some nuggets…He’s still my fave #5 of all time…