FORT LAUDERDALE — It has been seven years since Florida Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky has been in the final year of a contract.
Back in 2019, Bobrovsky’s future home was about all anyone wanted to talk about either when he was home in Columbus or when the Blue Jackets went on the road.
This year is different.
There has been very little chatter about Bobrovsky’s future plans — with many just assuming he will remain with the Panthers, the team that lifted him from Columbus with what, at the time, was the biggest contract (seven years, $70 million) the team had ever handed out.
“I’m fine with that to be honest,” Bobrovsky told FHN earlier this week.
But with Bobrovsky telling FHN that contract talks have not started (something GM Bill Zito did not want to talk about in his chat with the media on Tuesday) the rumor mill has at least started to churn when it comes to the Panthers and Bobrovsky with the NHL Trade Deadline coming next Friday afternoon.
It would be very surprising to see the Panthers trade Bobrovsky.
Period.
The general feeling around the team is that Bobrovsky remains a big part of Florida’s future plans which include bringing the Stanley Cup back to Fort Lauderdale.
Yes, the Panthers are staring up at an eight-point hole in trying to make the playoffs this year, but that does not mean anything in Florida’s big-picture outlook.
Bobrovsky wants to remain part of it.
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