After Trade of Veteran Defenseman, the Florida Panthers are Wild Fans

The deal of Jeff Petry comes with a condition

Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

While it's unclear if this will be another wild trade deadline for the Florida Panthers, it did get off to a Wild beginning.

As our Alex Baumgartner of OnSI Panthers projected, the team has begun to move off of some of its impending free agents as it pivots toward next season. The first to is Jeff Petry, a depth defenseman who played in 58 games and had eight assists for the Panthers in 2025-26,

This was Petry's only season with Florida, who is now 38 and spent his first 15 seasons with four other franchises, largely Edmonton and Montreal. He was not likely to return to the Panthers next season; the Florida defense in general has been problematic.

So the Panthers acted quickly to get something for Petry, and the Minnesota Wild stepped in to send a seventh-round pick that could become a fifth-round selection if Minnesota wins two playoff rounds and Petry plays in 50 percent or more of the Wild’s playoff games during those first two rounds.

Is that especially likely? No, even if the Wild are 3rd in the Western Conference currently, simply because it's hard to see Petry becoming a fixture in a playoff run at his age. But even if the Wild flame out early or Petry is a healthy scratch for many of their games, the trade will add to the Panthers' pick stash regardless, as they try to regroup from a broken season following two Stanley Cup championships.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Nate Schmidt were two veteran, rental defenseman that came to Florida, won a Cup, and cashed out the following offseason as UFAs.

Florida was hopeful that Jeff Petry would join that list, but this season just hasn’t gone that way for anyone within the organization.

- Alex Baumgartner, OnSI

So for now, the Panthers have at least one rooting interest when the playoffs start: Minnesota. And with less than 24 hours left prior to the deadline, there's still a chance that Florida moves others.

While goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky is the biggest name, forwards Evan Rodrigues and AJ Greer are other possibilities. Florida could trade Bobrovsky and then try to re-sign him this summer, an idea that has been floated by several national NHL reporters. Or they could bridge the gap in contract negotiations and bring him back for another run, and perhaps a lesser workload, since Bobrovsky has had career-worst numbers in many categories this season.