Florida Panthers acquires D Seth Jones in an exchange with the Chicago Blackhawks

Sunrise, Florida (AP) – The defending champion of the Stanley Florida Panthers Cup acquired Defense Seth Jones in an exchange with the Blackhawks Chicago on Saturday night.

Florida got Jones and a selection of the fourth round of Chicago 2026 for goalkeeper Spencer Knight and a first round of the draft next year. Blackhawks also retain 26% of Jones’ salary.

It is another great acquisition for Florida, which already has key players such as Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Anton Lundell, Carter Verhaeghe and Gustav Forsling locked up for at least three more seasons after this, and now lands a superior defender in Jones, which is under contract until 2030.

“Seth is a veteran elite defender and a proven leader in our league,” said Bill Zito, general manager and hockey operations president for Panthers. “It has been one of the most consistent players of the last decade that serves as a reliable battle horse on both sides of the album, and will help our club to continue competing to the highest level.”

Jones, 30, was Nashville’s general selection number 4 in the 2013 entrance draft, he took two places after Florida chose his current captain, Aleksander Barkov, that year.

Jones went directly to the NHL after the draft, starting his career with the predators, then spent six seasons in Columbus and the last four seasons in Chicago.

The Blackhawks never arrived at the playoffs in the mandate of Jones there and are not in the containment of postseason this year, which led him to ask for an exchange approximately a week and a half ago.

“I’ve been here for the last four years, probably in the darkest times that Blackhawks have seen in a long time,” Jones said last month. “I think things are moving forward, they are advancing. But I think my timeline could be different from … the Blackhawks. “

In short, he wanted to join a winner and give up his non -trade clause to move to Florida. For his career, Jones has 97 goals and 335 assists in 839 games. It has not appeared in a postseason game since the bubble season in 2020.

Jones’ father, Popeye Jones, played in the NBA for 11 seasons.

Knight has been part of the Panthers for five seasons, with 44-25-7 with an average of 2.76 goals against and a .906 savings percentage. He has 12-8-1 this season as Sergei Bobrovsky’s backup with the Panthers.