As expected, Spencer Knight will start the year with the Florida Panthers. The organization announced they recalled Knight from their AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers while sending goaltender Chris Driedger and forward MacKenzie Entwistle back the other way.
The move was primarily made for salary cap implications thanks to Knight’s $4.5MM salary. The organization signed him to a three-year, $13.5MM extension in 2022 while Knight was in the midst of the best season of his young career. The deal would prove premature with Sergei Bobrovsky taking back the net and Knight exclusively seeing AHL action last season.
He still carries significant prospect pedigree as the 13th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft. He holds a 32-17-6 record in 49 starts since the start of the 2020-21 NHL season with a .906 save percentage and 2.91 goals-against average. The numbers may look fairly solid for an NHL backup but according to HockeyReference, Knight has a .421 quality start percentage, a 100 GA%-, and a -0.7 goals saved above average showing him as fairly pedestrian at the NHL level.
Last season with the Checkers didn’t do much to inspire confidence either with a 25-14-5 record in 45 games with a .905 SV%. He’s still the best option for the Panthers behind Bobrovsky despite being fairly expensive.
Driedger will immediately become the starting netminder in Charlotte after an impressive season with the Coachella Valley Firebirds. He finished with a 24-7-7 record in 39 games with a .917 SV%. He backstopped the Firebirds to a second straight Calder Cup final on the heels of a .906 SV% in 18 postseason contests.
Florida signed Entwistle this past summer after being non-tendered by the Chicago Blackhawks. He’ll likely be a bubble player for most of the year in the Panthers organization with 15 goals and 35 points over 193 appearances in four years at the NHL level.