The Florida Panthers handed Nathan Bastian a contract Sunday. Then they put him on waivers before the ink was dry.
It's a one-year, two-way deal carrying an $850K cap hit. The number drops to $525K in the minors, with $575K guaranteed.
That guarantee matters. Florida is committing real money to a 28-year-old right winger it's also willing to lose for nothing.
The timing is what jumps off the page. Saturday night, the 6-foot-4 forward logged 16:12 against Tampa Bay, the third-most ice time among Panthers forwards.
Only Sandis Vilmanis and John Beecher played more up front. He put two shots on goal and finished plus-1 as Florida dropped a shootout to the Lightning.
Garnet Hathaway and Sam Lafferty both saw less ice in that game. Paul Maurice leaned on him, and Bill Zito's front office still chose the waiver wire over a guaranteed NHL roster spot.
Panthers gamble on the waiver wire days before opening in Carolina
Two-way deals exist for exactly this kind of player. They let a team stash a big right shot in the minors without clogging the cap sheet.
Signing and waiving a guy on the same afternoon is a bit like buying a spare tire and leaving it on the curb overnight. You just hope nobody walks by.
That's a gamble I wouldn't take. Size on the right side doesn't grow on trees, and the Panthers just advertised theirs to the rest of the league.
For perspective, Aleksander Barkov carries a $10,000,000 cap hit. Bastian's number is a rounding error next to that.
So who blinks first? If he clears, Florida keeps a veteran body in reserve at the lower minor-league rate and nobody loses sleep.
The clock is short. The regular season opens Tuesday in Carolina, the first stop on a four-game road trip that runs through San Jose, Anaheim and Los Angeles.
The Panthers don't play a home game until Minnesota visits on Oct. 10. Long trips out West have a way of testing depth charts early.
Florida's form isn't exactly screaming for reinforcements. The Panthers sit 2-0-2 over their last four, with Saturday's shootout setback the latest result.
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If a rival claims him, Florida finds out what the rest of the league thought of those Saturday shifts. If nobody does, Bastian starts the season earning his way back, one call-up at a time.
Should the Panthers have kept Nathan Bastian on the NHL roster instead of risking a waiver claim?
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