Sergei Bobrovsky will live perpetually in Florida Panthers lore, helping the franchise capture back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in each of the last two seasons. But with the team a full 10 points back of the ultimate wildcard berth within the Eastern Conference in 2025-26, and the Russian netminder set to be an unrestricted free agent this summer, it is not not possible that he gets traded before the March 6 deadline.
After exiting the Olympic break 1-3-0, The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported on Wednesday that “the Panthers are in sell mode, listening on their pending unrestricted free agents, which include AJ Greer, Tomas Nosek, Jeff Petry, Daniil Tarasov and the large guy, Sergei Bobrovsky.”
LeBrun makes a case for various teams to inquire concerning the 37-year-old, including the Edmonton Oilers, Montreal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres. However the two frontrunners, in his mind, are the Vegas Golden Knights and Carolina Hurricanes.
“The Vegas Golden Knights could make sense. All of their goalies are outside the highest 30 within the league in save percentage and goals saved above expected,” LeBrun wrote in his latest NHL rumblings.
“The Carolina Hurricanes must at the very least pick up the phone and inquire. Brandon Bussi has been an awesome story, but shouldn’t the Canes do all they will to be sure that of their goaltending if that is finally their 12 months? In keeping with league sources, the Canes checked in regarding the St. Louis Blues’ Jordan Binnington earlier this week, though it doesn’t appear to have gone anywhere.
“All things being equal, Vegas and Carolina make essentially the most sense if Bobrovsky moves.”
Panthers are running out of gas down the stretch
The Panthers are looking like a team that hasn’t had a full offseason in 4 years. And that is been precisely the case, with Florida marching to back-to-back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals since 2023, and winning two of them.
They’ve handled devastating injuries in 2025-26, most notably to captain Sasha Barkov, who hasn’t played a single game this 12 months after undergoing ACL and MCL surgery in his right knee on Sept. 26. Matthew Tkachuk missed all the first half of the season, while Brad Marchand, Seth Jones, Dmitry Kulikov and other fulltime roster players have all missed significant time.
It’ll take a miracle for this squad to get back into the race in a crowded Eastern Conference, and the way in which they’ve played after the Olympics is not in any respect encouraging. The Panthers just lost 5-1 to the Recent Jersey Devils on Tuesday night, and so they proceed to slide further and further away with only 21 games left.
Although Bobrovsky is having the worst season of his NHL profession, managing an underwhelming .873 save percentage, everyone knows what happens when ‘Playoff Bob’ is on the case.
Still, considering the quantity of hockey Florida has played over the past three years, and the injuries they’ve handled, it is not overly surprising to see them this far outside of playoff contention originally of March.
All that being said, general manager Bill Zito will likely be selling a few pending UFAs between now and Friday’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline. It’ll be intriguing to see if one in every of the faces of the franchise finally ends up being a casualty.