When the NHL season ends, only one team is satisfied with the roster decisions that were made during the previous year. Unlike years past, the Florida Panthers have a very quick turnaround from the last game played until the first major event of the offseason. The Panthers have just 15 days to regroup from a loss in the Stanley Cup Finals to making the 63rd selection of the NHL Draft – barring a trade.
Of course, the front office has been in planning mode for months, not just for the draft, but also for the financial and roster decisions the Eastern Conference champions will need to make to build a team that can duplicate and exceed last year’s accomplishments. General manager Bill Zito has 10 pending free agents – two arbitration eligible restricted free agents and eight unrestricted free agents. Luckily, Zito does not have any marquee players set to hit the market. However, the Panthers have nine players entering the final season of their contracts in 2023-24. Zito has traditionally made his mark on the roster through dynamic trades, shrewd signings, and savvy waiver claims. If this trend continues, the Cats biggest moves this offseason could come from a swap rather than a splashy signing.
Let’s take a look at Florida’s most tradeable assets going into this offseason and the arguments for why Zito should or why he should not consider dealing these particular Panthers.
Anthony Duclair • Forward
2023-24 Cap Hit: $3 million
2023-24 Salary: $4 million
Trade Value: Medium-to-low
An offseason Achilles injury limited the speedy Duclair to just 20 regular season games after he returned to the lineup on February 24 against the Buffalo Sabres. Anthony scored just two goals, one into an empty net, and totaled seven assists. It took a while for Duclair to catch up after missing 75% of the schedule and all of training camp. However, in the playoffs, vintage “Duke” made an appearance. In 20 games, Duclair began to regain his 2021-22 form and started to create scoring chances – usually alongside Aleksander Barkov. Duclair ended the postseason with four goals and seven assists and proved to be a useful top six option for Paul Maurice in the run to the Stanley Cup Final. There is no denying that Duclair’s acceleration and skating are in the elite range and he’s one of the few pure breakaway threats on the roster. Because of his speed bursts, Duclair is mostly effective in short shifts and he can be a liability defensively – especially when fatigued. While his finishing, or lack thereof, leaves fans wanting more out of his game, Duclair has netted a healthy 43 goals in 137 games as a Panther and continues to be a crowd favorite.
Why the Panthers should trade Duclair: Zito has about $11.2 million in cap space to fill three vacant forward spots and three empty spots on the blue line. Duclair is somewhat of a luxury for the Panthers. While you can never have enough scoring, Florida has a stacked group of players that can put up significant offensive numbers with Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Carter Verhaeghe, and Sam Reinhart. The Cats have depth scoring in Sam Bennett, Anton Lundell, and Eetu Luostarinen. Florida can afford to move Duclair without sacrificing depth on special teams, withstand the offensive loss, and then reinvest $3 million into either the bottom six or the defense. Adding $3 million to the pool might help keep a heart-and-soul player like Radko Gudas in Sunrise or help fund a face-off winning anchor for the fourth line center position.
There aren’t a lot of NHL-ready options that could fill Duclair’s skates, but Zito has spoken highly of Mackie Samoskevich. Florida could move Duclair, fill his vacancy with depth, and keep Samoskevich waiting in the wings in the AHL for a potential call-up and hoping that two years of high-end collegiate hockey have prepared him for a fast track to the NHL. Other internal options could be the return of Grigori Denisenko, second-year pro Justin Sourdif moving to wing, or recently signed NCAA play-making forward Ryan McCallister.
Why the Panthers should hold onto Duclair: While the Panthers have a lot of players that can score, the roster doesn’t have a ton of game-breaking speed. A lot of Florida’s best offensive players – Tkachuk, Barkov, Reinhart – are, at best, league average skaters. Duclair has the ability to stretch defenses that no other player on the roster can repeat with regularity. The “Duke” is the only home run hitter on the Panthers as it is currently constituted. He has sound chemistry with Barkov and probably could be utilized more on the power play.
Furthermore, Duclair has found a home in South Florida. He embraces his diversity in the game of hockey and is active in the community. Armed with an infectious smile, he’s one of the truly outward facing personalities on the roster and seems to genuinely connect with fans.
From a business perspective, Duclair’s reputation in the NHL is polarizing. He’s had clashes with coaches. He’s been a part of six different franchises and he’s only 27. So the stigma, earned or not (and it has not been earned in his time as a Panther), brings Duclair’s trade value down. Couple that with his recent injury and there probably isn’t much demand for his services this offseason. He’s another player that could be attractive at the trade deadline if he’s still without
a contract for 2024-25 and beyond, but there is very little incentive for the Panthers to move Duclair that isn’t purely as a salary dump.
Prediction: Duclair’s future will be determined by Zito’s other moves. I don’t think the Panthers will shop him unless the need arises and a big salary player or two is brought in this summer. Duclair won’t move the needle for many teams, so if Florida does make a large acquisition, expect Anthony to be one of the casualties. However, after the success of this past year, I’m hesitant to predict another Zito move that shakes the foundation of the organization. I believe Duclair returns to the Panthers in 2023-24, but I don’t expect any extension discussion to begin
until closer to the trade deadline. He may need to be a salary that is jettisoned to help improve the roster later in the season.