Panthers acquire Daniil Tarasov from Blue Jackets for 2025 pick

Now that the party is (mostly) over, it’s back to work in South Florida.

On Thursday, the Florida Panthers acquired goaltender Daniil Tarasov from the Columbus Blue Jackets. In return, the Blue Jackets will receive a fifth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.

Pierre LeBruin of The Athletic was the first to report the trade.

Tarasov is a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights. He has just finished his three-year contract, which he signed in June 2022. The deal carried an AAV of $1.05 million. With the move, some suspect that it means the Panthers are going to move on from Vitek Vanecek, who is a pending unrestricted free agent.

The 26-year-old is a large goaltender with considerable upside to his game. Standing 6-foot-5 and weighing over 200 pounds, the Russian backstop takes up a lot of net, and has quite a bit of athleticism to boot. It’s taken him time to fully adjust to the North American game, but he’s been able to establish himself as a capable No. 2 goaltender behind Elvis Merzlikins over the past couple of seasons.

The Novokuznetsk native has been a part of the Blue Jackets organization since he was taken in the third round, 86th overall, of the 2017 NHL Draft. After spending time in both Liiga in Finland and the Kontinental Hockey League, Tarasov joined Columbus’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters, in 2021. For most of his time in North America, he’s seen time in both the NHL and AHL.

Tarasov had a promising 2023-24 campaign, going 8-11-3 in 24 games, posting a 3.18 goals-against average and .908 save percentage. Unfortunately, his numbers took a bit of a dip this past year, going 7-10-2 with a 3.54 GAA and a .881 SV%. He technically pitched his first NHL shutout on Jan. 18 against the New York Rangers, even though the Blue Jackets ended up losing 1-0 in a shootout.

In 65 career NHL appearances, Tarasov has a record of 19-34-6 with a 3.44 GAA and a .898 SV%.