The Carolina Hurricanes sent speedy but hot-and-cold forward Sergei Samsonov to the Florida Panthers in exchange for big defenseman Bryan Allen this afternoon. There have been an interesting amount of inner-Southeast Division trades in the last couple weeks and this most recent move fits into that larger story.
Samsonov’s contract ($2.53 million cap hit) expires after this season while Allen’s $2.9 million cap hit will continue through the 2011-12 campaign, so the Panthers added even more salary cap flexibility to new GM Dale Tallon’s rebuilding mode. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes get a big defenseman (Allen is listed at 6'4" and 220 lbs.) who can help them win some tough turf battles as the team tries to hang onto an Eastern Conference playoff spot.
Ultimately, this is most likely a “salary dump” for the Panthers while the Canes are making a minor tweak to one of their weak spots along the blueline. That’s not a bad deal for either sides, since the two teams are in very different situations.