{"id":518705,"date":"2026-03-04T19:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518705\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T19:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:18:08","slug":"panthers-listening-on-sergei-bobrovsky-a-j-greer-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518705\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers Listening On Sergei Bobrovsky, A.J. Greer \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Panthers\u2019 resounding 5-1 loss to the Devils last night dropped them to 14th in the Eastern Conference and 10 points out of a playoff spot, leaving their postseason chances<\/a> at just 0.5%. That\u2019s led them to broadcast to the league this morning that their pending UFAs are available for sale as rentals \u2013 most notably future Hall-of-Fame goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky<\/a>, per Pierre LeBrun of TSN<\/a>. Depth forwards\u00a0A.J. Greer<\/a>,\u00a0Tom\u00e1\u0161 Nosek<\/a>, defenseman\u00a0Jeff Petry<\/a>, and backup netminder\u00a0Daniil Tarasov<\/a>\u00a0are the Cats\u2019 other soon-to-be free agents on the active roster, although LeBrun only mentioned Greer by name.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a stunning but prudent reversal from the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions, who have simply been too hampered by injuries this season to make a fourth straight run to the Final, even if they did manage to squeak into a wild-card spot. While Bobrovsky is one of the more decorated netminders of this era with a pair of Vezinas, Cups, and All-Star nods each, he hasn\u2019t done much to drag his club along, either.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s still their clear-cut starter in terms of usage, starting 42 games compared to Tarasov\u2019s 19, and has a superior winning percentage to his #2 option. Tarasov has better individual statistics across the board, though, and Bobrovsky has been a bottom-five starting option by most every measure. Among the 33 goalies with at least 28 games played, Bobrovsky ranks 29th in goals against average (3.13), 32nd in save percentage (.873), and 31st in goals saved above expected (-15.9, per MoneyPuck<\/a>).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s led to a reported gap in extension talks between the Cats and the man who backstopped them to their first two championships in franchise history. If Florida were still in any sort of playoff contention, that wouldn\u2019t matter; they\u2019d keep him in the fold and hope to work out a deal after the season ended. But with Bobrovsky now in his age-37 season with a career-worst showing, the Panthers are likely opening themselves up to the idea of parting ways with Bobrovsky this year, one way or another. With little hope of a postseason berth, they might as well get something for him.<\/p>\n

This is all assuming there\u2019s a market for goaltending help at the deadline at all. The Blues are also making similarly struggling starter\u00a0Jordan Binnington<\/a>\u00a0available<\/a>, saturating an already slim list of teams that may have a want or need for either. ESPN\u2019s Emily Kaplan<\/a> reported this morning that \u201cmany people I talk to around the league are skeptical that Bobrovsky would be traded, even as the Panthers fall out of the playoff race,\u201d due in part to no team making a documented, aggressive push for a goalie so far.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Greer, more typical trade deadline fourth-line rental fodder in line with the Wild picking up\u00a0Michael McCarron<\/a>\u00a0and the Knights landing\u00a0Cole Smith<\/a>\u00a0from the Predators last night, is a far more likely name to be on the move. The 29-year-old is a career enforcer type but has seen an elevation in ice time this season with all of Florida\u2019s forward injuries. He\u2019s responded with a career year, netting 11 goals and 22 points in 61 games with a 14.1% shooting rate and 159 hits.<\/p>\n

Considering Nashville just netted a second-round pick for McCarron, who\u2019s posted far less impressive offensive impacts this season but does carry added value as a strong-on-draws center, the Panthers could be in line to land a similar pick for Greer. Nosek just came off LTIR to make his season debut after a lengthy recovery period from knee surgery, so he won\u2019t be landing anything above a mid-to-late-round selection if there\u2019s even any interest. Petry\u2019s struggled with just eight assists and a -10 rating in 58 outings this season, but should have a few callers, simply by virtue of him being a right-shot D-man with over 1,000 games of NHL experience.<\/p>\n

As for Tarasov, it would be surprising to see him moved. The Cats are presumably focusing on an extension with him, potentially even making him their starting option next season in the increasingly likely event Bobrovsky isn\u2019t brought back. That\u2019s especially amid a weak free agent class, in which Tarasov\u2019s .903 SV% this season leads the pack among goalies with double-digit starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Panthers\u2019 resounding 5-1 loss to the Devils last night dropped them to 14th in the Eastern Conference…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[258994,64,63,109220,3274,258995,10232,575,149069,85,216269],"class_list":["post-518705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-a-j-greer","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniil-tarasov","tag-florida-panthers","tag-jeff-petry","tag-newsstand","tag-nhl","tag-sergei-bobrovsky","tag-sports","tag-tomas-nosek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}