Huge new trade bait available as Barkov hits trade market!

First of all, the Florida Panthers do not want to lose star forward Aleksander Barkov. They would love to see him extend his contract with the team and even retire there in years to come. 

However, it might not come true. That’s people Pierre LeBrun reports on Insider Trading on TSN that Barkov doesn’t think he’ll want to remain in Florida. That means new general manager Bill Zito might be forced to trade his captain this season to prevent losing him for nothing next summer as a free agent. A huge new trade bait available for rival teams. This is how LeBrun explained it on Thursday night: 

“I’m told a number of teams have made inquiries to GM Bill Zito over the last number of weeks to check out Barkov’s availability. And when asked, Zito said on the record, he wanted to be clear that he has no intention of trading Barkov and that in fact he would like to re-sign him. But, the reason teams are calling is because they’re skeptical that the No. 24 player in the TSN Top 50 this year will re-sign with the Florida Panthers when his contract expires in 18 months. So, the Barkov camp at this point says they want to win in Florida. They’re going to do everything they can to do that, but they’re also going to give Bill Zito every opportunity to put the right pieces in place in order for that to happen. Barkov is going to be a key name to watch over the next number of months.”

Barkov, who has a 20-plus goal, 55-plus point potential this year, we would not be surprised with the high number of interested suitors across the league. His season has been postponed seeing that the Panthers were set on facing the Dallas Stars, who are dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak. Barkov will have to wait until Jan. 17 against the Chicago Blackhawks to make his season debut, but we bet he will be motivated to impress general managers across the league. 

In 66 games last season, Barkov managed to put up 20 goals and 62 points for the Panthers. Many teams across the league are looking for a top centerman, and with Columbus Blue Jackets’ Pierre-Luc Dubois on the market, this could get very interesting.