I think they would be open to moving Duclair but the issue may be I don’t think players can be traded while on IR? And they may need to make a move to activate him.

Panthers are 3 points out of a wildcard spot. Making a move that doesn't improve the roster is probably out of the question. How do they activate Duclair when he's healthy? No idea. But I can't imagine they dump him for what amounts to almost nothing, especially when it (most likely) improves a team that they'll have to play 3 times in their final 12 games.

I could be wrong, but I believe since the new collective agreement it is possible.

That's a very fair assessment. However, they will NEED to move someone, they have 1,3 M of cap space, and Duke is coming back soon. Either Bennett Reinhart of Duke will need to be moved.

I would just love a guy like Duclair on the leafs top6.

I'm sure the Panthers would love to have him in theirs as well

Florida may or may not make the playoffs, but actively making the roster worse is something that could very well put a solid nail in Bill Zito's coffin. Likely wouldn't be the final nail, but improving the position of that 1st that they gave to Montreal would be a huge bogey.

They will somehow need to lower their cap space, they currently don't have enough to activate Duclair, and tbh I don't see who they could trade to make space without getting worse. It's definitely gonna be interesting to follow what they end up doing!

Yeah, I mean, cap is accrued daily, so it's conceivable that they just wait it out (similar to Vegas last year, which didn't end well...) and activate him for the last few weeks or however much time they can make it work.