Florida Panthers to place defenseman Aaron Ekblad on LTIR; acquire Robert Hagg

A busy Sunday morning for the Florida Panthers.

According to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, the club will be placing defenseman Aaron Ekblad on the long-term injured reserve while acquiring defenseman Robert Hagg from the Buffalo Sabres.

The return in the deal is the Calgary Flames’ sixth-round pick in 2022, Seravalli reported.

Ekblad was injured Friday night against the Anaheim Ducks when an awkward collision took him to the ice. Teammate Aleksander Barkov and Ducks rearguard Cam Fowler raced for a loose puck along the wall, falling to the ice. The pair then took Ekblad down with them.

The move to place Ekblad on the LTIR, according to PuckPedia, adds Ekblad’s $7.5-million cap hit to the LTIR pool, freeing up a total of $7.1-million.

With Hagg, the Panthers are further beefing up the left side of their blueline days after acquiring Ben Chiarot. In 48 games this year, Hagg has one goal and eight points. His underlying numbers have been far from good this year. At 5-on-5 with Hagg on the ice, the Sabres controlled 44.55 percent of the shot attempts, 37.29 percent of the goals, and 42.5 percent of the expected goal share. These numbers are all well below where they were in 2020-21 for Hagg, so it’s reasonable to expect him to produce better on-ice results with the Panthers.