Panthers ship Knight to Blackhawks for Jones

Gearing up their roster for another run at the Stanley Cup, the Florida Panthers on Saturday night acquired defenseman Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for goaltender Spencer Knight, a source told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski, confirming reports.

Florida also sent a conditional first round pick in June’s draft to Chicago, and took back a fourth rounder from the Blackhawks to complete the deal.

Jones and the Blackhawks likely hit a breaking point earlier this week, when after a loss to the Utah Hockey Club, a game in which he scored, he sounded off on the team’s lack of progress.

“We’re the exact same team right now as we were Game 1,” Jones said at his locker after the 2-1 defeat. “It’s pretty evident out there. We haven’t made any strides to be a better, more simple hockey team, and it shows. We don’t get a lot of wins because of that.”

The loss in Utah was the Blackhawks’ fourth straight (0-3-1) and extended a run in which they’d lost seven of eight (1-5-2).

“This has been almost four years of bottom of the league,” said Jones, who scored for Chicago in the loss. “So, it’s not just this year, for me, at least.”

Any move for Jones was going to be complicated considering the lofty contract he brings over from Chicago, but a deal was struck to give him a fresh start. He’s only in Year 3 of an eight-year pact that carries a whopping $9.5 million salary cap hit, and his production with the rebuilding Blackhawks does not justify those totals.

At 30 years old, he now joins his fourth team in the NHL, and perhaps he’s finally in a place where he’ll be able to skate for a contender. He played for the Nashville Predators and Columbus Blue Jackets before signing in Chicago, but in good times and bad for his clubs, his game has been pretty steady. He can be counted on as an anchor to a top line pairing and he routinely plays more than 24 minutes per game.

But his scoring totals, perhaps because he’s been with rebuilding Chicago, are modest at best. At the 4 Nations Face-Off break this season, he had six goals and 26 points, and his career season came in 2017-18 in Columbus, when he had 16 and 57.

News of the agreement between Chicago and Florida was first reported by SportsNet.