Trades are disruptive. The most violent of roster moves, a trade uproots athletes, rips
them from their lives, and whisks them into an entirely different environment in a manner
of hours. A new boss. New co-workers. New front office. New city. Sometimes even a new
culture or language. It is complete upheaval for the players.
For organizations, trades can signify an inflection point. A new direction. Seismic
change. Often, the significance of a trade is not known immediately. It might be days,
months, years, or decades before the ramifications of a trade can be properly traced
and diagnosed. Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito has made some thunderous trades
— franchise altering acquisitions — in the last four seasons.
When Zito traded for Matthew Tkachuk on the evening of July 22, 2022, the ground
shook. A true blockbuster with huge names attached that seemingly came out of
nowhere and blindsided even the most “in the know” NHL insiders. It was the
manifestation of Zito’s vision to set the Panthers trajectory firmly sighted for a
Stanley Cup. We now know how that worked out.
But, that isn’t the trade that turned the Panthers’ fortune. Zito’s first trade was a huge
deal. 22 days after stepping into the general managing role, he acquired Patric
Hornqvist in a stunner. News broke before it was official and Hornqvist infamously
dumped all his Penguins gear into his driveway as a symbol of the betrayal he felt. An
example of the emotion carried by players in the experience of being traded.
The crease lizard came to Sunrise and immediately shifted the culture. In the process,
Zito also jettisoned the albatross contract of Mike Matheson — inherited from the
previous regime. Matheson was in the early stages of an eight-year contract with the
play on the ice not matching the term or dollar amount in value. This trade… it sent a
message. The Panthers are going to be different.
But again, this isn’t the trade that set the Cats straight. Is it Sam Reinhart? A now 57-
goal scorer that has blossomed into a true top line talent since being acquired by
Buffalo — nope. What about Brandon Montour? A player resurrected from the porous
Sabres’ defensive system only to put up the most prolific offensive season from a
defenseman in franchise history — wrong again.
The trade that changed the Panthers for good wasn’t orchestrated by Bill Zito. It
was Dale Tallon.
It was February of 2020. The trade deadline was days away. Joel Quenneville was in
his first season as the head coach and the Panthers had just lost nine of the last 13
games. The team was slipping. Tallon made a move.
It wasn’t a particularly good trade. A talented, but often frustrating Vincent Trocheck was
the centerpiece. Tallon opted to go with quantity over quality in return. Trocheck went to
the Carolina Hurricanes and the Panthers acquired four players — Erik Haula, Lucas
Wallmark, Eetu Luostarinen, and Chase Priskie.
Haula and Wallmark went to the NHL roster. Luostarinen and Priskie reported to
Springfield — then Florida’s AHL affiliate. After just five games in the AHL from
both Priskie and Luostarinen, the American League shutdown due to Covid. Haula,
Wallmark, and Priskie would play a combined 24 games for the Panthers. Wallmark
would play another four with the Cats in 2020-21 after being re-acquired by Zito. He had
signed in Chicago as a free agent after the Panthers did not qualify him.
Every trade has multiple levels. For Carolina, they were getting a top six center with a
game tailored for playoff hockey. Trocheck was only 26 at the time of the trade and had
already been a three-time 20-goal scorer and a one-time 30-goal scorer. There was no
doubt that the Hurricanes were getting the best player in the deal.
Tallon didn’t make that trade to make the Panthers better for the stretch run of 2020. He
made that deal to send a message. Florida’s young core was talented, but
underachieving for the caliber of the group — Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau,
Aaron Ekblad, Matheson, and Trocheck. And that core was flanked by a budding
MacKenzie Weegar, a resurgent Evgenii Dadonov, and a dangerous Mike Hoffman.
But it wasn’t good enough. The team didn’t have an identity in that first year with
Quenneville. Tallon took the opportunity to make the core group uncomfortable and that
deal forever changed the course of the Florida Panthers.
Trading Trocheck didn’t just signal to the players that the standard on the ice wasn’t
good enough — it also might have woken up the ownership. Tallon sealed his own fate
with a deal that reeked of desperation. The instant that he agreed to this trade with
Carolina it became clear that there was no plan. There was no vision. Tallon never
regained the grasp he had on the organization after the Tom Rowe debacle.
That one trade was a turning point. The moment when Vinnie Viola stopped looking up at
the sails in the sun and looked down at his feet to recognize that he was on a slowly
sinking ship — again.
Exactly seven months later, Zito is at the helm and a fiery Hornqvist is on his way to
Florida. The culture change is in motion. Zito would add and delete from the roster,
making bold, calculated moves, but also uncovering gems in the process.
But Tallon did leave the Panthers one redeeming asset from the trade on February 24,
2020 — a parting gift of sorts — Eetu Luostarinen. There is no public report about why
Luostarinen was included in the deal. The press release featured Tallon quotes about
Priskie, but Luostarinen isn’t mentioned. He only says in a video posted on the Panthers’ YouTube channel, “We added some really good pieces for our future to go along with
the young guys that we have coming.”
Luostarinen started the 2020-21 season in Finland with KalPa before debuting with the
Panthers on January 17 and scoring a goal and an assist. Eetu appeared in 44 games
that season and was a minus-11 with eight points.
In the last three years, he has made himself indispensable to Florida’s middle six as a
prototypical Paul Maurice winger. Along with the maturation of the other three players
on the Stanley Cup winning roster that were Panthers before Zito took over — Barkov,
Ekblad, and Sergei Bobrovsky — Luostarinen has embodied the spirit and identity of this
team. He’s hard-nosed and physical. His work ethic is unquestioned and he does all of
the dirty jobs necessary to bring home a championship.
The direction of the Panthers didn’t hinge on Luostarinen becoming a key
contributor to the middle six and the premium forechecking winger of the third line, but
his development, sacrifice, and fit is a representation of the organizational growth and
boldness that was necessary for the Cats to go from a team with talented players to
a team that can — and did — hoist the Stanley Cup.
Tkachuk, Reinhart, Hornqvist… Luostarinen and the trade that set the path to hockey
immortality.