Sam Reinhart Has Been Traded To The Florida Panthers

The Buffalo Sabres have traded Sam Reinhart to the Florida Panthers in exchange for goalie prospect Devon Levi and a 2022 1st round pick, with possibly another piece coming from Florida to fill out the exchange. When all is said and done, the Panthers will possess three of the top four picks from 2014: Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart, and Sam Bennett. 

Reinhart has been a steady producer on an unsteady Sabres team, cracking the 20-goal plateau in five of his six seasons with Buffalo. Recently he has been consistently hitting totals that rival his best seasons, but doing so in as many as 28 fewer games played. Last season Reinhart scored 25 goals - tying a career-high - and 40 points in 54 games. Reinhart is a right-shot centre who has played the right-wing in Buffalo as well. The Panthers have gotten themselves an extremely gifted top 6 player who continues to improve year after year despite his team trending in the opposite direction. Reinhart is coming off of a 1-year deal with Buffalo worth $5.2 million and is an RFA this summer. Florida will be looking to lock him down long-term, and solidify their offence for the coming years as the team pushes to contend for the Stanley Cup.

In exchange, Buffalo receives Devon Levi, a goaltending prospect taken by Florida in the 7th round in 2020. While that may seem shockingly cheap for a player of Reinhart's caliber, Levi showed his potential with an absolutely astonishing performance for Canada at the World Junior Championships this past winter, going 6-1-0 with a 0.75 GAA and a .964 sv%. Levi, who was relatively unknown at the time of his draft, rocketed himself into the spotlight with that performance and put himself on a lot of teams' radar. Along with Levi, the Sabres acquired Florida's 1st round pick next year, with potentially a small addition or two still to come.

What do you think of this deal for Florida?

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