As stars return, the Panthers face a complex salary cap puzzle, forcing tough roster decisions and intricate financial maneuvering to ice a full squad.
The Florida Panthers are slowly but surely getting healthier.
Over the past couple weeks, the team has welcomed back several previously injured players, including Noah Gregor, Cole Schwindt and, on Monday, star forward Matthew Tkachuk.
Forward Brad Marchand, who has missed the past six games with an undisclosed injury, has been practicing with the team and could be back any day.
Further down the line, the team also expects to get defenseman Seth Jones and Dmitry Kulikov, as well as forward Jonah Gadjovich, back in the lineup in the coming weeks.
It’s possible Jones returns prior to the NHL Olympic Break, which runs from Feb. 6 to Feb. 25, while Kulikov and Gadjovich aren’t expected back until sometime in March.
As Florida continues to welcome players back onto the active roster, they are going to have to do some maneuvering in regard to the salary cap, which sits at $95.5 million this season.
In order to make room for Tkachuk’s $9.5 million AAV (average annual value) under the cap, Florida moved Jones from Injured Reserve to LTIR (long-term injured reserve), retroactive to Jan. 2.
That means Jones’ AAV no longer counts against the Florida’s cap number, but Jones would to miss a minimum of ten games and 24 days, as is the rule for any player going on LTIR.
When Jones eventually returns, though, Florida will have to account for his $7 million cap hit, though they won't have to make room for Marchand’s $5.25 million when he’s ready to come back, since he is not on LTIR and his cap hit was never moved off the books.
Currently, Florida has just under $1.8 million in cap space and 22 players on their active roster, according to PuckPedia.
Players on the current roster who are likely candidates to be sent to AHL Charlotte (Gregor and Jack Studnicka were already sent down earlier this week) are Schwindt, Sandis Vilmanis, Toby Bjornfot and Donovan Sebrango, though the four account for a combined $3.26 million.
That wouldn’t be nearly enough to make room for Jones, let alone Kulikov and Gadjovich.
We’re not even getting into the juggling that will have to come down the line if either or both of Sasha Barkov and Tomas Nosek return, though Nosek’s AAV of $775,000 will be much easier to manage compared to Barkov’s cap hit of $10 million.
Both are still months away from returning after each had reconstructive knee surgery last year; Nosek was injured during the offseason while Barkov went down during his first full practice of training camp in September.
Barkov, Nosek, Jones and Kulikov are all on LTIR.
Remember, in the playoffs, only the 20-man game roster must be cap compliant, not the entire active roster.
The bottom line right now is that Panthers GM Bill Zito and his staff are going to have a lot of number crunching and player moving to consider as they continue to maneuver through this challenging season.
There will be a league-wide roster freeze that will run from Feb. 4 through Feb. 22, so no trades or player movement can be initiated during that time frame.
The league’s annual Trade Deadline is just a couple weeks later, on Friday, March 6.
As we’ve learned over the past few years, Zito and his staff are very thoughtful and forward thinking, so they likely have several potential situations and possibilities to contemplate.
When trying to make numbers work for a fully-healthy Panthers squad, it’s clear that moves will have to be made.
We’ll have to wait and see how things play out in the coming days, weeks and months, as the positioning of the Panthers in the standings will have as much to do with the team’s decisions as the healing status of the players themselves.
Stay tuned.
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Photo caption: Nov 26, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers left wing Brad Marchand (63) celebrates with center Carter Verhaeghe (23), defenseman Niko Mikkola (77) and defenseman Seth Jones (3) after scoring against the Philadelphia Flyers during the first period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)