The Florida Panthers had their bid for a third straight Stanley Cup championship soiled before it even began when the offseason injuries began piling up. First it was alternate captain Matthew Tkachuk who announced his offseason surgeries would keep him sidelined for the first few months of the season. Then, just weeks after the release of that story, captain Aleksander Barkov tore his ACL at practice in what was announced to be a season ending injury for the team’s captain.
The significantly hobbled Panthers haven’t looked too affected by their absence to start the season as two time Vezina Trophy winning goal tender Sergei Bobrovsky has delivered them back-to-back wins.
But now as reality sets in for the back-to-back cup champions, they have been linked to a fellow back-to-back cup champion in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin.
Malkin, who has spent 20 years with the Pittsburgh Penguins and delivered the city three Stanley Cups, has never played for another NHL team. But with circumstances piling up, NHL insider Greg Wyshynski believes a change is brewing.
“The growing narrative in the league right now is, with Barkov going down, and with Malkin having a house in Miami, that they’ll probably find a way for him to be the 1C in Florida before too long. That’s a place he’d probably be willing to go with Bobrovsky there,” Wyshynski said on ‘Halford & Brough in the Morning’.
Is Evgeni Malkin This Year’s Brad Marchand
The Panthers would never go out and get a former Stanley Cup champion who’s on the wrong side of 35, right?
This move has a lot of shades of last season’s acquisition of forward Brad Marchand. Marchy was a one team man, who delivered success to a city in a very forward facing role on the team. Although the Bruins did not have a Sidney Crosby, which might make Malkin’s decision to leave much harder, with the C on his chest Marchand had all the reason to remain in Boston despite dwindling success.
The Panthers have proven that they will give out big contracts to older players. Considering all the correlation already established, I think Malkin should be considered a relatively likely blockbuster trade candidate especially if the Panthers’ offense continues to struggle outside of the opening weeks of the season.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Insider Predicts Panthers’ Blockbuster Trade For 3x Stanley Cup Champion appeared first on Heavy Sports.