By: Chris Nosek
After back-to-back Stanley Cups, the Panthers are only out of the playoffs because of injuries. Bill Zito has made it clear he wants to push the Panthers to win every season possible. Under that premise, he didn’t do enough to help this team be in a better position for next season. The Panthers have seven players who are pending unrestricted free agents and three who will be restricted free agents.
Zito made two trades this deadline. First, he sent Jeff Petry to Minnesota for a 7th-round pick that could become a 5th-round pick, and then he brought in Vinnie Hinostroza from the Wild for future considerations. Hinostroza will be a solid fill-in for the bottom-six group, as many in that group are still banged up. Neither of these moves is a huge needle-mover; however, they may find they like how Hinostroza fits in their lineup and try to re-sign him over the offseason.
The two major factors being taken into consideration for Bill Zito are the fact that Florida has eight pending unrestricted free agents and no first-round draft pick in either of the next two drafts. With guys like Tomas Nosek, A.J. Greer, and Luke Kunin on their list of pending unrestricted free agents, they should have done more to acquire additional draft capital. Guys like Eetu Luostarinen, Evan Rodrigues, or even Mackie Samoskevich would have fetched a massive haul for Zito. Meanwhile, down in Charlotte, they have Mackenzie Entwistle and Sandis Vilmanis, who could have been moved as well.
Some would mention Sergei Bobrovsky or Daniil Tarasov. This is a solid tandem, and I would expect both of them to be back next season. Exploring moving them would have been an option, but not sure anything they would have gotten in return for either would have been worth moving on from that tandem. Overall, Zito should have done more to improve the Panthers’ situation for next season. However, he didn’t do anything drastic and still has some options for the summer.
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