The Florida Panthers are making a big swing in goal, closing in on a trade for New Jersey Devils netminder Jacob Markstrom, according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that forward Evan Rodrigues is expected to be part of the return, and LeBrun added that no salary was retained on Markstrom’s contract.
The deal, as described by LeBrun, will send Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist, and Ben Steeves to New Jersey in exchange for Markstrom and forward Angus Crookshank. Rodrigues, Boqvist, and Crookshank each have one year left on their contracts, while Steeves is set to become a restricted free agent.
For Florida, the move comes right after the club added Akira Schmid from the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday, a pair of moves that appears to clear the runway for Sergei Bobrovsky to hit the open market on Wednesday. Bobrovsky is coming off a career-low 2025-26 season, a rough finish to the final year of the seven-year, $70MM deal he signed with the Panthers in 2019.
Bobrovsky’s run in Florida still had plenty of high points. The 37-year-old posted a save percentage above .905 in four of the seven seasons on that contract, including a .915 mark in 2023-24, when he also led the NHL with six shutouts.
That season ended with Bobrovsky backstopping the Panthers to the 2024 Stanley Cup. He followed that with a .905 save percentage and five shutouts in the regular season during 2024-25, then helped Florida to a second straight Cup.
But injuries and lineup turnover dragged his numbers down in 2025-27, when he finished with a career-worst .877 save percentage, the lowest of any goaltender with at least 50 games played this season, even though he still recorded four shutouts.
Now Florida is turning to another veteran goalie who needs a reset. Markstrom, 36, posted 23 wins and a .883 save percentage in 44 appearances this season, a career-low line after back-to-back years above .900.
He’s still not far removed from his best work, though. In 2021-22 with the Calgary Flames, he put up a league-leading nine shutouts, 37 wins, and a .922 save percentage in 63 games, good enough to finish as the Vezina Trophy runner-up behind Igor Shesterkin and earn Vezina votes for only the second time in his 16-year career.
Florida is banking on a new environment and a stronger defensive setup to get Markstrom trending back in the right direction as he enters the final stretch of his career. He also brings some familiarity with the Sunshine State, having started his NHL career with four seasons in Florida, where he went 11-43 with an .898 save percentage.
Across 578 NHL games, he has averaged 37 wins and a .907 save percentage per 82 games played. He is beginning a two-year, $12MM contract signed with New Jersey in October, 2025, and his $6MM cap hit fits into a Panthers cap picture that is already nearly maxed out.
Rodrigues and Boqvist give New Jersey immediate depth on the other side of the move. Rodrigues has spent the last three seasons in Florida’s middle six and saw his scoring dip each year, from 12 goals and 39 points in 2023-24 to 11 goals and 31 points this season.
Even with the drop-off, he still averaged 17 minutes a night because of his defensive value and penalty-killing work. That kind of versatility should help the Devils stabilize their third line.
Boqvist brings a different kind of utility. He finished second on the Panthers with 141 hits last season, showing the physical edge Florida had been encouraging over the last two years.
Working mainly from a fourth-line role in 2025-26, he posted 13 points in 73 games, his lowest scoring total in a full NHL season. Still only nearing 28, he has averaged 22 points and 114 hits per 82 games over 387 NHL games and seven seasons.
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