NHL Rumors: Chicago Blackhawks, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning

Welcome to another edition of Full Press Hockey’s NHL Rumors! The 2022-23 season is over, and players and front offices will be evaluated. Now, the focus shifts toward the new season. Training camps will begin shortly, and rosters will be finalized. Teams are always looking to improve, and the excitement of a new NHL season is upon us.

In this Wednesday edition of NHL Rumors, we’ll examine the Chicago Blackhawks, Florida Panthers, and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

NHL rumors in this edition include:

Will the Vancouver Canucks trade Conor Garland to the Chicago Blackhawks? Sam Reinhart will become a UFA after this season. Will he stay, or will he go? The Lightning need a backup goalie. Will Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen do?

Chicago Blackhawks – Conor Garland

Rumor: Per – Michael DeRosa nhltraderumors.me. The Canucks need to move out salary, and Garland’s name again has been mentioned.

Garland certainly has been included in trade speculation that has cooled off for a while, but is peaking once again. With only $765,833 in current cap space available, evaluating how to create more is always a challenge. Garland is on a $4.95 million deal expiring at the conclusion of the 2025-26 season. He has had 36 goals and 62 assists in 158 games in Vancouver.

The Blackhawks could use another forward in their top-six, and Garland could be valuable on the power play as well. His power play success in Vancouver has been limited. He only has three goals and 12 assists on the man advantage. Just picturing him playing with Connor Bedard has to excite Blackhawks fans. He is a total energy player and would fit right in with the Hawks.

The Chicago club has plenty of cap space at $12.86 million to take on the Garland contract. As far as the return goes, the Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson has a gold mine of picks to attract any team looking to make a deal. They have four first-round choices over the next two drafts and a total of 13 picks in the first three rounds over the next two years. They also have prospects to attract the Canucks into sending Garland to the Windy City. Bedard and Garland… what a duo that would be!

Florida Panthers – Sam Reinhart

Rumor: Per – George Richards – floridahockeynow.com. For the first time in his nine-year NHL career, Reinhart could be a free agent. 

Reinhart mentioned, “Billy (Zito) has given me the longest deal I have had in this league, so this is nothing new. It is not something I stress over or lose sleep over too much. They know I want to be here, I know they want me here. We have no problems sort of waiting it out so I am just looking forward to the start of the season being here. We have both expressed our interests and our desire for me to be here. And that’s exciting. My focus is solely on the start of camp and the start of the season.” 

Now, that doesn’t sound like a player wanting to shop around his talents after his contract ceases. Yet, one never knows in the NHL. He is the third highest-paid forward on the roster and if the Panthers can’t extend him, he will surely see his options. His statistics call for a pay raise from his current $6.5 million pact. He tallied 31 goals and 36 assists in 82 games last season, and while in Florida, he has been lethal on the power play with 32 goals and 26 assists. Reinhart also had 11 goals and six assists in 31 playoff games.

The Panthers will have 10 other UFAs to deal with next season and four RFAs. For what it’s worth, Reinhart is comfortable where he is. Whether that remains the case is yet to be determined.

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Tampa Bay Lightning – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Rumor: Per – Rob Couch – nhltraderumors.me. The Buffalo Sabres have three goalies on the roster, which means Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Eric Comrie will compete for one job, the backup role.

With Andrei Vasilevskiy playing around 60 games a season, he has already gotten fatigued. The Bolts need a reliable backup to help give him relief. The Lightning need a better option as their backup, and the young Sabres goalie only has a $837,500 AAV cap hit until the end of the upcoming 2023-24 season. As is the Lightning’s forte, they grab players they need for specialty roles and don’t spend a fortune to do it.

Luukkonen appeared in 33 games last season with a 3.61 GAA and a .892 save percentage. His numbers would be significantly better on a stronger defensive team in Tampa Bay. Vasilevskiy is the clear starter and is under contract for five more seasons at a whopping $9.5 million AAV. Still, he can’t play every game and needs an adequate backup to allow him some rest.  Luukkonen is just 24 years old and could do well to absorb all he could from the ‘master’ Vasilevskiy. That is, of course, IF the Sabres see fit to trade him. With Devon Levi being touted as the starter for the Sabres, who knows how long Luukkonen would need to wait to get his shot at the starting role in between the pipes.

That concludes this edition of NHL rumors. Be sure to catch our next article, and thanks for reading!