Florida Panthers Sergei Bobrovsky linked to a Western Canadian team and the details are worth watching

With Florida potentially slipping out of the playoff picture, early discussions have reportedly touched on a massive swing: sending pending UFA goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to Oil Country as a short-term, all-in crease upgrade.

Here’s the post that kicked off the whole “is this even real” debate.

From Edmonton’s perspective, the logic is obvious. When you’re trying to maximize the prime years of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, you don’t dabble, you push your chips to the middle.

The problem is Bobrovsky’s $10 million cap hit. Under the newly enforced CBA framework, pulling off the money side of this isn’t just tricky, it’s restrictive.

The old “double retention” idea, where a third team could step in and slice the contract even further, is essentially dead at the deadline because of a 75-day waiting period between retained-salary transactions.

That means Florida can retain up to 50%, but there’s no clean, immediate second layer to push Bobrovsky down near $2.5 million.

So if Edmonton wants Bobrovsky, the realistic landing number is about $5 million against the cap.

That creates the next issue: Edmonton’s projected deadline space is only around $2.8 million, so they would need to ship money out in the same deal.

The name that fits the math is Andrew Mangiapane, whose $3.6 million cap hit would clear enough room for Edmonton to fit Bobrovsky while staying compliant under stricter roster rules.

In a straight two-team structure, the Panthers would reasonably demand the draft capital that otherwise might have been paid to a third-party broker.

The rumored “price” starts to look like a 2027 first-round pick, a mid-round pick like a 2026 third, and a premium prospect in the Matthew Savoie or Beau Akey tier.

It’s a heavy ask for a pure rental, even with Bobrovsky’s pedigree, but that’s the bet Edmonton would be making.

It also raises the uncomfortable Florida question: is Daniil Tarasov actually ready to be a true No. 1?

He’s handled a tough Panthers season better than most expected, but carrying a starter’s workload every night is a different animal, especially if Bobrovsky is moved and the safety net disappears.

Oilers goaltending has been too inconsistent to trust in a tight Western Conference run.

The appeal of Bobrovsky is simple: on a night when the offense can’t explode, he’s the type of veteran who can steal a 2–1 game and turn a series with one performance.