The Florida Panthers on Thursday cleared up salary-cap space by sending injured center Dave Bolland and prospect Lawson Crouse to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for a conditional second-round pick and a third-round pick.
Bolland has three years remaining on a contract that pays him $5.5 million per season and likely will be placed on long-term injured reserve by the Coyotes.
Crouse, one of the Panthers' top prospects, was the 11th overall pick in the 2015 NHL draft.
"We are very pleased to acquire Lawson," Arizona general manager John Chayka said in a statement. "He's a big, physical, power forward who is a strong skater with good hands. Players of his caliber and profile are extremely hard to find."
The second-round pick in this trade becomes a third-rounder if the Crouse doesn't play for the Coyotes this season. If Arizona trades Crouse this season, it locks in as a second-round pick.
"Today's transaction creates significant cap space for us in each of the next three NHL seasons, while simultaneously giving us the ability to add more good, young players to a farm system we know we need to improve," Panthers general Manager Tom Rowe said in a statement. "We plan to use this cap space to continue to aggressively build on the steps we took this summer to construct a championship-caliber roster here in South Florida today and well into the future."
