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The Florida Panthers’ season came to an end on Monday night, thus ending former Flyers’ captain, Claude Giroux’s hope for a Stanley Cup before his free agency. Giroux is a pending UFA and many teams will be after him. Giroux has shown he can play all three forward positions in his time with the Panthers, something that will add to his value. He also has returned to the penalty kill as well as being one of the most dangerous weapons on the powerplay the league has seen over the last 15 years. In this article, I will list different teams that could bring him in and why he could choose them. In the end, I will rank which spots I think are most likely for Giroux to sign.
- Ottawa Senators
Giroux’s hometown team. They have the cap space to bring him in, the young talent to surround him with, and would be a great place for him to finish his career with an up-and-coming young, fun team. They will be in on Giroux regardless of whether or not the Panthers go deep in the playoffs. Ottawa was projected to take a bigger step forward this season than they actually did, bringing in Giroux can help them meet and exceed expectations for 2022-23 and beyond.
- New York Rangers
Again, a young and talented team with a huge amount of cap space. The Rangers are the closest to competing of these teams. They may already be there. They have elite talent in Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox. They have a franchise goalie in Igor Shesterkin. The only thing they are missing is a true leader and skilled veteran. Giroux fits both of those.
- Carolina Hurricanes
A team that may very well win the Eastern Conference is the Hurricanes. They have the ability and the core of skilled players. There isn’t really a weakness anywhere in the lineup. They wanted him at the trade deadline but couldn’t get him for one reason or another. Carolina is a place that doesn’t attract many free agents due to the lack of “big city appeal” (Chicago, NY, LA), but Giroux hates attention so this feels like a match that could happen depending on the kind of lifestyle Giroux and his family want.
- Philadelphia Flyers
This is entirely up to Giroux. The Flyers are not going anywhere next season or the next few seasons, in all likelihood. If he wants to finish his career as a Flyer, he will. If he wants to move on with his career and come back to Philly after his playing days are over, he will do that. Realistically, the Flyers should not make Giroux an offer. The player and franchise are heading in two different directions. Giroux is aging and wants to win more than anything. The Flyers are looking for a new coach and want to get younger and faster. It is time for them to shake hands and move on without each other.
- Nashville Predators
This depends on the team’s direction going into the offseason. They were looking to trade Filip Forsberg, then they wanted to re-sign him. They have the cap space to bring him in and Nashville is a beautiful city. They are still loaded on the blue line as well. If Forsberg leaves, I think they truly blow it up and rebuild the team. If he stays, Nashville could definitely look at making another playoff run by adding Giroux to a skilled, deep team.
- Colorado Avalanche
It was between COL and FLA at the deadline for Giroux. Both had submitted offers that Chuck Fletcher was okay with. Giroux ended up picking the Panthers and waiving his NMC for them. Now, the Avs can add him to their already stacked core of Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Gabe Landeskog, and Mikko Rantanen. According to Spotrac, the Avalanche will have just below $23m in cap space to work with. Some of their UFAs are going to have to walk for them to get all the way there, but there is definitely a way they could make it work.
- Minnesota Wild
One of the teams he would have accepted a trade to. They need to work on their cap situation but the interest is there on both sides. Darkhorse candidate in my opinion. Pairing Giroux with Kaprizov would give the Wild an elite duo on offense and add to their powerplay.
- St. Louis Blues
Another team Giroux would have accepted a trade to. He is still good friends with Brayden Schenn from his days in Philly, as well as head coach Craig Berube. The Blues are another team that has to work on their cap situation to bring him in, but again, the mutual interest is real.
- Seattle Kraken
Yes, I’m serious. Giroux posted 102 points in 2017-18 with Philly when the Flyers’ head coach was Dave Hakstol. They have the cap space to add him. They need scoring from any source possible. Giroux put up MVP numbers with Hakstol. The fit is there, the cap is there, and the interest from Giroux could be there. The only question is if the Kraken are looking to build through the draft or be more competitive next season. Giroux would likely get to wear the “C” again, something that he took very seriously with the Flyers, and would likely get the most money from the Kraken.
Now that nine suitors have been identified, I am going to rank these teams with the assumption that Giroux does not win the Stanley Cup in Florida. I want to assume he won’t win with Florida because if he does, only one or two teams will be in the mix: Philly, for sure, and Ottawa. Maybe Detroit and Seattle have conversations, but it would really be a race between Philly and Ottawa.
- NYR
- OTT
- COL
- STL
- MIN
- CAR
- SEA
- PHI
- NSH
The reason I believe the Rangers are in the best spot to land Giroux is because the team is ready to win now, New York is not far from Philadelphia, they can give him the contract he wants, and Chuck Fletcher had an offer that he liked but Giroux turned down at the deadline. What was the offer? Who knows, but Giroux turned them down because he wanted to go to Florida. The Rangers are not going right to the final this season, but getting their young players playoff experience now will make them a very dangerous team as soon as next season. They have a great young goaltender capable of stealing games for them. Somewhere between $6 and $7m AAV sounds about right for him. They could offer four years if they really wanted to, but the expectation for Giroux is probably a three-year deal.
This will undoubtedly hurt the Flyers. Watching your former captain sign with a division rival will create some hard feelings. The simple facts are that the Flyers are not anywhere near the level of the Rangers. Giroux bet on the Panthers winning the Cup and it didn’t happen. There was no known agreement that he would return to Philly even if they did win it. The Flyers watched Giroux play 1,000 games for them. They watched him have two almost MVP seasons. They watched as he did his best to carry a subpar team for the last ten years and did nothing to surround him with any talent. If Giroux signs with the Rangers, the narrative will be that is sticking it to the Flyers. This is not the case. He wants to win, New York is the best place for him to win for multiple years.
