Florida Panthers clearing deck for run at Sergei Bobrovsky

With their trade of James Reimer, the Florida Panthers have made their plan to make a run at free agent goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky absolutely clear.

After the retirement of Roberto Luongo this past week, the Florida Panthers have now moved on from another goaltender. James Reimer is on his way to the Carolina Hurrricanes, in exchange for goaltender Scott Darling and a 2020 sixth-round pick.

Darling was considered a buyout candidate for Carolina, and the Panthers have confirmed they will place him on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a buyout. Via CapFriendly, Florida will absorb cap hits of $1.23 million and $2.33 million in the next two years and then $1.183 million in each of the two years after that to buy Darling out.

Add in Luongo’s cap recapture penalty, $1.09 million in each of the next three years, and the Panthers will be doling out some money to goalies who won’t be between the pipes for them. But they have also shed Reimer’s $3.4 million cap hit for each of the next two seasons, so they come out a little bit ahead and they won’t be on the hook for Reimer’s $2.25 million signing bonus next year.

Rumors tying the Panthers to goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky go back to the trade deadline, before the Columbus Blue Jackets decided to keep their top pending free agents and effectively go all-in. The door is open for Bobrovsky to sign with Florida as a free agent when the window opens on Monday.

The Panthers now have in the neighborhood of $25 million in cap space to operate with, and they have no significant restricted free agents to worry about. Bobrovsky is sure to be their No. 1 free agent target now, and fellow former Blue Jacket Artemi Panarin has been on their radar too. Panarin played for new Panthers coach Joel Quenneville in Chicago.

Nothing can be official for another 24 hours, give or take. But the path for Bobrovsky to the Panthers has been paved even wider, and if it doesn’t happen it will be a major upset.