Panthers may try to add this season — The Fourth Period
The Florida Panthers will not have much salary cap space to play with once Matthew Tkachuk returns to the lineup and comes off LTIR, but that won’t stop GM Bill Zito from exploring ways to further improve his team’s chances at another championship.
The Panthers begin a six-game roadtrip in Toronto on Tuesday and ends in Washington on Jan. 17. Tkachuk is joining the club on this trip and could make his season debut in the coming days.
“This is going to be my first road trip of the year,” Tkachuk told reporters during the first intermission of Florida’s 2-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche at Amerant Bank Arena.
“Whether I’m playing on the six-game road trip, it would probably be toward the end of it just because I am still in the noncontact jersey. I don’t even have a target right now, but it will be nice to be back on the road again, get back in the routine.”
With Tkachuk back, the Panthers will be just over the LTIR overage usage allotment they’ve compiled. How much extra space they create depends on which players they send down to the AHL.
It may be too soon to determine which area Zito may try to improve, either in his bottom-six or on the blueline, but assuming the roster juggling occurs between now and the March 6 trade deadline, Zito will be open to adding to his roster – how much of an add depends on how aggressive he plans on being.
Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov has been lightly skating, albeit in a brace, on his own as he mends from ACL and MCL surgery and isn’t expected to return to game action until midway through the playoffs, should Florida reach that point. If he returns, the team will then have some tough roster and lineup decisions to make, as the lineup a team ices for a playoff game must be fully cap compliant.
