SUNRISE, Fla. — The defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers acquired defenceman Seth Jones in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night.
Florida got Jones and a 2026 fourth-round pick from Chicago for goaltender Spencer Knight and a conditional first-round pick in next year’s draft. The Blackhawks also are retaining 26% of Jones’ salary.
It is another huge acquisition for Florida, which already has key players like 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 top-line defenceman in Jones, who is under contract through 2030.
“Seth is an elite veteran defenceman and a proven leader in our league,” said Bill Zito, the general manager and president of hockey operations for the Panthers. “He has been one of the most consistent players of the past decade serving as a reliable workhorse on both sides of the puck, and he will help our club continue to compete at the highest level.”
The 30-year-old Jones was the No. 4 overall pick by Nashville in the 2013 entry draft, taken two spots after Florida chose its current captain, Aleksander Barkov, that year.
Jones went right to the NHL after the draft — starting his career with the Predators, then spending six seasons in Columbus and the last four seasons in Chicago.
The Blackhawks never made the playoffs in Jones’ tenure there and aren’t in postseason contention this year, which led to him asking for a trade about a week and a half ago.
“I’ve been here the last four years, through probably the darkest times the Blackhawks have seen in a while,” Jones said last month. “I think things are moving up, they are moving forward. But I think my timeline might be different than … the Blackhawks.”
In short, he wanted to join a winner — and waived his no-trade clause to move to Florida. For his career, Jones has 97 goals and 335 assists in 839 games. He hasn’t 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, going 44-25-7 with a 2.76 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage. He is 12-8-1 this season as Sergei Bobrovsky’s backup with the Panthers.