Trade grades: Panthers score vital piece in Jones; Hawks get options

Seth Jones got his wish.

Less than two weeks after talking publicly about wanting to play for a contender, Jones is off to Florida. The Panthers acquired the 6-foot-4, 213-pound defenseman Saturday in a four-piece trade with the Blackhawks.

Florida receives Jones and a 2026 fourth-round draft pick from Chicago in exchange for goalie Spencer Knight and a first-rounder in either 2026 or 2027.

The Blackhawks are retaining 26.3% of Jones' salary to drop the annual cap hit from $9.5 million to $7 million. His deal runs through the 2029-30 season.

Florida Panthers

Important context off the top: the Panthers have no interest in being cautious. Not at this point in franchise history as the reigning Stanley Cup champion and a team with a legitimate chance to make a third consecutive Cup Final. Florida is the definition of a win-now team, and this is definitely a win-now move.

It's splashy and a tad crazy. Jones, 30, is under contract for five seasons after this one, and Knight and the first-rounder count as high-end assets.

Bringing in Jones is also an undeniably savvy move in the short term.

Jones completes the blue line, filling the top-four hole left by Brandon Montour's offseason departure. Coach Paul Maurice can now trot out lefty Gustav Forsling with righty Aaron Ekblad and lefty Niko Mikkola with righty Jones. That's an extremely large (three guys 6-foot-4 or taller), mobile, and experienced group that can handle a massive workload. (The Nate Schmidt-Dmitry Kulikov third pair will be lucky to log 10 minutes a night in the playoffs.)

Jones immediately upgrades both special teams. He leads all NHL defensemen this season in points per 60 minutes on the power play. A capable distributor and shooter from the point, Jones is a better option for the four-forward first unit than Ekblad, though Maurice might see it differently. At worst, Jones can star on PP2, help the penalty kill, and provide offensive pop at even strength (Jones is tied for 18th in total points per game among D-men).

Jones puts pucks onto forwards' sticks. Transition play has been the 2013 fourth-overall pick's bread and butter over the years - although, as I mentioned earlier this week, he's taken a slight step back in that department in 2024-25. Maybe the concerns about Jones' skating will be muted in Florida, with the environment he's playing in improving drastically overnight. He can blend in easier as the No. 2 defenseman versus No. 1 guy in Chicago.

Jones is undeniably a huge winner here. He expressed a desire to be elsewhere and the Blackhawks finalized a deal pretty quickly despite the onerous contract. Jones, who knows Panthers general manager Bill Zito from overlapping time in Columbus, is now on his fourth team in 13 NHL seasons. He's played just 37 playoff games, never advancing past the second round.

Before the Jones trade, it's possible one or both of the Panthers' high-profile pending unrestricted free agents - Ekblad and power forward Sam Bennett - were headed for another club this summer. Tossing a long-term deal onto the books (even at that reduced cap hit) further complicates matters.

More pressingly, what's the plan at backup goalie? There's no way the Panthers enter the playoffs with a Sergei Bobrovsky-Chris Driedger tandem, right? Surely, Zito's working the phones to acquire a better second-stringer.

Florida owns just one pick in the first three rounds of the next two drafts. It would be a little crazy if Zito traded that 2026 second over the next week. But crazy's a good vibe right now for the club. The Panthers haven't looked their best for stretches of the regular season yet find themselves atop the Atlantic Division with 20 games left. The Eastern Conference is wide open.

Grade: A-

Chicago Blackhawks

This deal accomplishes three things for the Blackhawks.

It rids the team of a veteran who no longer wanted to be part of their program. It brings in a hungry young goalie who has more upside than any other goalie in the organization. And it ups Chicago's first-rounder tally to four over the next two drafts (or a whopping 12 over a five-year stretch from 2022-26).

Factoring in Jones' messy contract situation (hefty cap hit, lengthy term, no-move clause), general manager Kyle Davidson made out well. It's a relatively fair deal for both teams - though the Chicago-bound assets are less concrete.

The pick, which will be in the back half of the opening round, isn't guaranteed to turn into an NHLer, let alone an impact one. If I were Davidson, I'd weaponize two to three of the upcoming firsts to acquire young NHLers. Trading Jones makes the Blackhawks worse in the moment (hoo boy, that blue line stinks) and, let's face it, cornerstone Connor Bedard won't tolerate losing forever.

Knight, meanwhile, has fantastic pedigree as a 2019 first-rounder who's performed well at the NCAA, AHL, and NHL levels. The smart, athletic, technically sound 23-year-old has earned a quality start in 11 of 21 starts this season, posting a solid .907 save percentage in the process.

The problem with a package based around a young goalie is the wide range of outcomes. Trajectories, even for promising ones, are extremely difficult to predict relative to forwards and defensemen. It wouldn't be overly surprising if Knight blossomed into a longtime starter or if he tapped out as an OK backup.

The Blackhawks' three retention slots are now filled (Jake McCabe, Mikko Rantanen and Jones), so they're unable to play third-party broker during deadline week. Still, retaining $2.5 million versus $4.75 million (50%) on Jones is a win.

Grade: B+

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email ([email protected]).