Panthers acquire Ben Chiarot from Montreal, Trade Frank Vatrano to Rangers

The Florida Panthers got an early jump on NHL trade deadline week with a pair of trades on Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, Florida sent long-time Panther forward, Frank Vatrano, to the New York Rangers in exchange for a fourth-round pick in 2022.

This trade cleared over $2.5M in cap space for the Panthers, giving them more flexibility to add another player prior to the March 21 trade deadline.

Florida wasted no time getting their guy as they made another trade Wednesday night, acquiring defenseman Ben Chiarot from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for prospect Ty Smilanic, a first-round pick in 2023 and a fourth-round pick in 2022.

Montreal is retaining half of Chiarot’s $3.5M cap hit for this season. Chiarot will be a Unrestricted Free Agent this summer.

With the acquisition of Chiarot, Florida gets a left-shot defenseman that can slot anywhere in their top-six. Chiarot, 30, helped Montreal to a Stanley Cup Finals appearance last year. The 6’3, 234-pound blue liner has played in 469 career NHL games. He has appeared in 56 playoff games with Montreal and Winnipeg.

Multiple reports have also said that this trade does not take Florida out of the running for Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux.

According to David Dwork of WPLGLocal10, a Giroux to Florida trade is ” still very much a possibility, per source.”

Giroux is expected to be traded prior to the deadline, he is set to play in his 1,000 NHL game tomorrow.