The Panthers are nearly $4 million over the salary cap. How they can remedy that

Miami Herald

a day ago

The Florida Panthers, rightfully so, are enjoying their summer right now. The back-to-back Stanley Cup champions handled most of their business already. President of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito managed to re-sign the trio of defenseman Aaron Ekblad plus forwards Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand. Forwards Tomas Nosek and Mackie Samoskevich got new deals, too. Plus the Panthers got their backup goaltender (Daniil Tarasov) and depth defenseman (Jeff Petry) to round out the roster.
So until training camp begins in September, the team is going to revel in its success just as it did last summer.
But before the 2025-26 season begins on Oct. 7 and the Panthers attempt for a rare three-peat, some business will need to be tended to.
Specifically, the Panthers will have to address their salary cap situation.
According to PuckPedia, the Panthers' are currently carrying a $99.225 million cap hit for next season when factoring in their top 23 contracts — 14 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies. That's $3.725 million over the league's salary cap of $95.5 million for the season. Florida is one of three teams that is currently over the cap, along with the Vegas Golden Knights ($7.64 million over) and the Montreal Canadiens ($4.52 million over).
At the moment, Florida is able to be over the cap. The league allows teams to be up to 10% above the cap — this offseason, that's $9.55 million — during the offseason, but teams have to be cap compliant by the start of the regular season.
How will the Panthers handle the cap crunch? Only two options seem truly feasible at this point.
Option 1: Matthew Tkachuk opens the season on long-term injured reserve, during which time his $9.5 million cap hit would not count toward the Panthers' salary cap.
The star winger played through the entire Stanley Cup playoffs with a tadductor muscle that had torn all the way off the bone in addition to a sports hernia, both of which were sustained during the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.
Tkachuk, who got married to his fiancee Ellie over the weekend, said shortly after the Cup Final that there's a 50-50 chance he would need surgery this offseason. He has not yet had the surgery.
Should that happen, it's likely Tkachuk would not be ready to start the season and they could use LTIR to provide temporary salary cap relief. Players on LTIR must miss a minimum of 10 games or 24 days of the season, whichever is longer.
Option 2: The Panthers can trade players under contract for prospects or draft picks to offload salary.
Looking at the roster, the only players making significant enough money that don't have a no-movement clause in his contract that would be logical trade candidates are forwards Evan Rodrigues and one of either Jesper Boqvist or Dmitry Kulikov.
Rodrigues has a cap hit of $3 million each of the next two seasons, Boqvist $1.5 million each of the next two seasons, and Kulikov $1.15 million each of the next three seasons.
Rodrigues has played a key role for Florida the past two seasons but doesn't necessarily have a defined role. He is the player coach Paul Maurice has moved up and down the lineup to fill whatever gap is needed, a Swiss Army Knife of sorts.
Boqvist is in a similar spot. He primarily played in the bottom six during the season but showed he can rise to the occasion in the playoffs when needed, filling in on the top line twice when Rodrigues and Sam Reinhart each missed time with injury.
Kulikov has been a standout on Florida's third defense pairing.
The other players on the roster without no movement clauses, in descending order of cap hit for next season, are center Anton Lundell ($5 million), forward Eetu Luostarinen ($3 million), defenseman Niko Mikkola ($2.5 million), forward A.J. Greer ($850,000), defenseman Uvis Balinskis ($850,000), forward Jonah Gadjovich ($775,000), Petry ($775,000), Nosek ($775,000) and Samoskevich ($775,000). Lundell, Luostarinen and Mikkola are seen as part of Florida's core, and the six making less than $1 million apiece wouldn't offset the cap enough to justify moving them.
The possibility of trading Rodrigues and Boqvist — or making any other deals of that sort — likely won't become serious conversations until the Panthers have clarity on Tkachuk's status. If Tkachuk starts on LTIR, then Florida can carry both Rodrigues and Boqvist and have $5.775 million to work with until Tkachuk returns.
However, should both Rodrigues and Boqvist be dealt, that would put Florida exactly $775,000 under the cap — just enough money to add a player making the league minimum to the roster and be cap compliant.