{"id":121643,"date":"2025-08-05T19:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T19:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/121643\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T19:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T19:18:09","slug":"panthers-not-expected-to-trade-evan-rodrigues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/121643\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers Not Expected To Trade Evan Rodrigues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although they are free to do so during the offseason, the Florida Panthers are currently $3.725MM over the upper limit of the salary cap. This means that in a few months, the Panthers will need to trim nearly $4MM from their active roster for a cap-compliant lineup, and many have speculated that Evan Rodrigues<\/a><\/strong> and his $3MM salary could be a consequence of that reality.<\/p>\n

Still, no guarantee it\u2019ll happen, and it\u2019s even appearing unlikely. In the most recent rendition of 32 Thoughts<\/a> with Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman, the journalist said he doesn\u2019t believe Florida will trade Rodrigues this offseason, despite the need for additional cap space.<\/p>\n

Rodrigues\u2019 spot on the roster was likely made safe by the recent injury update, again from Friedman, regarding winger Matthew Tkachuk<\/a><\/strong>. Friedman shared<\/a> a few days ago that he doesn\u2019t believe Tkachuk will play meaningful hockey until the Winter Olympics next season due to a torn adductor muscle suffered during the postseason. If that\u2019s the case, the Panthers could place Tkachuk and his $9.5MM on LTIR for the first five months of the regular season, giving them more than enough space for cap compliance.<\/p>\n

General Manager Bill Zito<\/a><\/strong> has already been commended this summer for his ability to retain a large portion of the lineup that won the franchise its second consecutive Stanley Cup championship a few months ago. Again, although they\u2019d likely much rather have Tkachuk in the lineup for the entire regular season, Zito has avoided a situation where he\u2019d have to move on from Rodrigues.<\/p>\n

Rodrigues has never been a true top-six piece at the NHL level, but has offered teams the flexibility to move him anywhere around the lineup. The Panthers have gotten exactly what they expected out of him when they signed him to a four-year, $12MM agreement before the 2023-24 season.<\/p>\n

Since donning the Panthers\u2019 crest, Rodrigues has scored 27 goals and 71 points in 162 games with a +22 rating, averaging 15:12 of ice time per game. He\u2019s been a consistent physical presence in the team\u2019s middle-six, and has even provided them with quality defense as evidenced by his 91.9% on-ice save percentage at even strength.<\/p>\n

Rodrigues, like many of his teammates in Sunrise, has elevated his performance during the postseason. In the Panthers\u2019 two most recent Stanley Cup Final victories, he has scored nine goals and accumulated a total of 30 points in 45 games. Additionally, he has recorded 98 hits and averages 15:24 of ice time per game. He\u2019s never been the most important player on Florida\u2019s roster, or even the most well-known, but the franchise recognizes the value he brings and has done well to retain him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although they are free to do so during the offseason, the Florida Panthers are currently $3.725MM over the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":121644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[73217,1323,1649,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-121643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-evan-rodrigues","9":"tag-florida-panthers","10":"tag-newsstand","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114977774472133471","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}