Thursday morning, the Florida Panthers and Arizona Coyotes made a surprising trade.
Florida sent Dave Bolland and Lawson Crouse, the 11th overall pick in the 2015 Draft, to the Coyotes for a second and third round pick.
“We are very pleased to acquire Lawson,” said Coyotes GM John Chayka. “He’s a big, physical, power forward who is a strong skater with good hands. Players of his caliber and profile are extremely hard to find.”
The trade allows Florida to shed Bolland’s $5.5 million salary cap hit and a contract that runs for three more years. Since signing the deal in 2014, Bolland has played just 78 games for Florida, scoring seven goals and 28 points.
“Steve Werier and Eric Joyce have been working the phones with Arizona for the past few weeks and came to Dale and I late last night with what they felt was a fair return for the cap, contract space and picks we received,” said Panthers GM Tom Rowe. “Today’s transaction creates significant cap space for us in each of the next three NHL seasons, while simultaneously giving us the ability to add more good, young players to a farm system we know we need to improve. We plan to use this cap space to continue to aggressively build on the steps we took this summer to construct a championship-caliber roster here in South Florida today and well into the future.”
According to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston, there is no salary being retained in the deal.
As a result, GeneralFanager.com shows the Panthers now have $9.2 million in cap space. Meanwhile the Coyotes, who are also paying Pavel Datsyuk and Chris Pronger to not play, are down to about $2.3 million in cap space.
The second round pick heading to Florida is conditional based on where Crouse plays this season, according to Craig Custance. If Crouse does not play with the Coyotes this season (defined by burning a year off his entry-level contract), they will send another 2017 third round pick to Florida instead of the 2018 second.
