The Florida Panthers acquired goalie Akira Schmid from the Vegas Golden Knights for a 2028 third-round pick Monday.
Vegas issued a qualified offer to Schmid, who has one more year of team control remaining, earlier in the day before trading him to Florida.
Schmid led the Golden Knights, who played four goalies in the regular season, with 16 wins. But Schmid, 26, was a healthy scratch during the Golden Knights' run to the Stanley Cup Final, where they lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in six games. Carter Hart, who was one of the five 2018 Canadian world junior hockey players acquitted in a sexual assault case in July 2025, signed with the team in October and debuted in December. He played every second for the Golden Knights in the postseason while Adin Hill, the goalie who led the franchise to its first title in 2023, was his backup.
Schmid, whose last contract was a two-year deal worth $875,000 annually, was thought to be a potential trade candidate largely because the Golden Knights are trying to preserve cap space.
On Friday, they traded Pavel Dorofeyev, who has scored at least 30 goals twice in his career, to the New York Rangers. The 25-year-old homegrown winger was also a restricted free agent and in line for a lucrative contract, which would have forced the Golden Knights to make major adjustments elsewhere.
PuckPedia projects the Golden Knights have $4.625 million in cap space with an eight-player unrestricted free agent class that's led by defenseman Rasmus Andersson, who arrived before the Olympic break in a trade with the Calgary Flames.
The Golden Knights gave up defenseman Zach Whitecloud, prospect Abram Wiebe, a 2027 first-round pick and a 2028 second-round pick to strengthen their top-four defensive group and reunite Andersson with former Flames defensive partner Noah Hanifin.
But going after Andersson, who was in the final year of his contract, meant that the Golden Knights would need to clear quite a bit of space to get a deal done or risk losing him in free agency.
Schmid gives the Panthers a starting point regarding their goalie situation heading into next season.
The Panthers played Sergei Bobrovsky and Daniil Tarasov to navigate an injury-riddled season, but both are unrestricted free agents.
Schmid's contract situation gives the Panthers, who are looking to win their third Stanley Cup in four seasons, some time to figure out other goalie options. PuckPedia projects they have only $5.871 million in cap space.
Injuries to captain and star center Aleksander Barkov and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov and star winger Matthew Tkachuk were instrumental in the Panthers missing the playoffs.
Earlier this month, they traded forward Mackie Samoskevich and used the draft capital from that deal to get Ottawa Senators captain and winger Brady Tkachuk hours later, uniting him with his older brother Matthew.
Florida also acquired forward Garnet Hathaway in a trade Thursday. Earlier Monday, the Panthers acquired the rights of pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Radko Gudas from the Anaheim Ducks.