After landing Tarasenko yesterday, Bill Zito capped off his TDL by bringing in Buffalo Sabres captain, Kyle Okposo.
A solid pickup for veteran leadership and forward depth for this Cats team. The Sabres no doubt did Okposo a solid by sending the good soldier to South Florida - a place he has a high probability (really high) for a long playoff run, one that hopefully ends with Lord Stanley being lifted.
Panthers TDL Recap
All info from
NHL.com:
MARCH 6: Florida Panthers acquire forward Vladimir Tarasenko from the Ottawa Senators for a conditional 4th-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft and a 3rd-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
MARCH 8: Florida Panthers acquire forward Kyle Okposo from the Buffalo Sabres for defenseman Calle Sjalin and a conditional pick in the 2024 NHL Draft
MARCH 8: Florida Panthers acquire goalie Magnus Hellberg from the Pittsburgh Penguins for goalie Ludovic Waeber and a conditional 7th-round pick in the 2025 NH
A non-trade move also happened today when the Panthers claimed off waivers 22-year old defenseman, Tobias Bjornfot, from the Vegas Golden Knights.
Per the Panthers website:
”Bjornfot, 22, has skated in three NHL games between the Vegas Golden Knights and Los Angeles Kings in 2023-24. He also played in 14 American Hockey League (AHL) games between the Ontario Reign and Henderson Silver Knights.
The 6-foot-1, 200-pound defenseman has appeared in 119 career NHL games between Los Angeles (2019-20 to 2023-24) and Vegas (2023-24), compiling 15 points (1-14-15). Across 109 total AHL games in his career, he has posted 31 points (11-20-31) and a plus-eight rating.
The Upplands Vasby, Sweden, native skated in two seasons (2018-19, 2020-21) with Djugardens IF of the Swedish Hockey League. On the international stage, Bjornfot won a gold medal with Sweden at the 2019 IIHF U18 World Junior Championship and earned bronze medals at the 2018 U18 WJC and at the 2020 U20 World Junior Championship.
Bjornfot was originally selected by the Los Angeles Kings in the first round (22nd overall) of the 2019 NHL Draft.“
Something the article leaves out is that Bjornfot was injured in January, and has been a healthy scratch since returning on February 15th.
This is a blue line depth signing and I imagine Bjornfot hits the A quickly to continue a rehab stint, as Zito says:
“
Tobias is a great professional with an extremely strong work ethic. We are excited for him to get to work within the Panthers organization.”
TDL Grade: B
I liked what Zito did this year at the TDL. While I love the wildness of taking some big swings, I also appreciate the low-risk-potential-high-reward strategy, too.
With Tarasenko, you’re getting a veteran former-Cup winner that has the ability to hang on the first/second line and as an offensive threat. Okoposo is a highly respected guy who also brings in leadership and will fill out lower line depth. Bjornfot is someone I see who fills in when a guy needs a night off or has an injury. And the Hellberg move is AHL goaltending depth.
All good moves in my opinion, but perhaps the best move during this whole period was getting Forsling, our strongest defenseman, resigned.
Of course, the greatest thing about the above is that you’re getting value to an already-strong team, and you did it without having given anything of value up.
Too sweet.
And so the favorites to come out of the East (at least for now), have gotten even stronger!
But so have their enemies…Boston, Tampa, and Carolina all added to their rosters as well. These playoffs should be really fiesty.
Tonight
The Cats will be looking to bounce back after their 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers Thursday night.
The Flames will make their way to Florida today. Calgary feels very much like a team in the midst of a retool.
After a rough first half, they have climbed to above .500 with a 31-26-5 record. But with high hopes entering the season, the Flames have disappointed their fans.
Possessing some good weapons in Kadri, Coleman, and a few others — but sitting sixth in the Pacific Division — the Flames unloaded three of their big names this trade season. Center Elias Lindholm, defensemen Chris Tanev, and Noah Hanifin were all moved out.
However, former Cats Huberdeau and Weegar made the cut.
It sounds like we won’t see Okoposo make his debut today, but we’ll get to see Tarasenko settle in a bit more today.
I predict a 4-2 Cats win!
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Lastly…don’t you just hate VGK??
Go Panthers!
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