Even though it was made public on Feb. 19 that Seth Jones had requested a trade, it always felt like it was going to be an offseason move that sent him out of town, mostly due to Jones’ contract. However, reports started popping up on Saturday evening — the first from Elliotte Friedman — that a deal to move the veteran defenseman to the Florida Panthers was incoming fast.
Shortly after that initial report, the Blackhawks confirmed they had traded Jones and a 2026 fourth-round pick to the Panthers for goaltender Spencer Knight and a conditional 2026 first-round pick. The first-round pick slides to 2027 if the Panthers trade their 2026 first. The Blackhawks retained 25% of Jones’ contract.
trade alert🔔
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) March 2, 2025
📰 ➡︎ https://t.co/gjN0lotc2c pic.twitter.com/c2Bkza5FTG
Jones was acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets in July 2021, back when former GM Stan Bowman was still at the helm of the Blackhawks in a trade that was panned from the start — mostly due to the timing and contract given to the defenseman. Yes, the cost was pretty high at the time — most notably former No. 8 pick Adam Boqvist (2018 draft) and two first-round picks in the top half of the round (2021 No. 12, 2022 No. 6 overall) — but really, the main issue was that the Blackhawks had just declared a rebuild a little over a year ago. Brining in and signing a defensemen in his late-20s that had been declining while with Columbus and decided to sign him to an eight-year deal was crazy considering the state of the organization at the time.
Although Jones regained his top-pair form with the Blackhawks, his play never quite measured up to his contract, the Blackhawks continued to flounder, and the team went into full tear-down under current GM Kyle Davidson about a year after Jones came to the team. This trade is honestly the best of both worlds for Jones and the Blackhawks: Jones gets to hopefully “compete in the playoffs every year” as he wanted and Chicago gets more draft capital and a potential franchise goalie that fits more into their rebuild timeline.
Seth Jones, acquired by FLA, is a minute-munching defenceman who is strong on the puck, big, and above-average in almost every facet of the game. His Achilles hill the past five years has been agility which makes him vulnerable defending the rush. pic.twitter.com/uzpWlmchff
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) March 2, 2025
Speaking of the goalie in the trade, Knight, 23, was selected by Florida 13th overall in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Prior to that draft, he was ranked the No. 1 available goaltender in North America thanks to his impressive play in the US National Development program. After being drafted, Knight spent two years at Boston College, putting up back-to-back seasons with a save percentage over .930. Knight was a finalist for both the Mike Richter and the Hobey Baker Awards as well as Hockey East naming him First Team All-Star, 2021 Goaltender of the Year for Hockey East, and the Hockey East Player of the Year, the latter of which was the first goaltender to win the award since Thatcher Demko in 2016. Knight also won gold at the 2021 World Juniors with Team USA, shutting out Canada 2–0 in the championship game while earning Player of the Game honors.
After his collegiate season concluded, Knight joined the Panthers to finished out the 2020-21 season, making 33 saves on 34 shots to win in debut in April, becoming the youngest goaltender to record a win for the Panthers. He went on to play in two games for Florida in the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, winning one and finishing with a .933 save percentage over the small sample.
Since then, Knight has had solid numbers in both the AHL and NHL, but he was unable to steal the starting role from Sergei Bobrovsky. Although he finished his second season with a respectable 19–9–3 record and .908 save percentage, the Panthers organization had him with the Charlotte Checkers in the AHL all of last season, where he put up a .905 save percentage in 45 games. This season, Knight was once again backup in Florida and currently has a .907 save percentage in 23 games.
Those numbers may not seam very inspiring, but both seasons were at or better than NHL average those years and that Knight is still young at 23. Knight joins a somewhat shaky group of goalies in the Blackhawks system: Arvid Soderblom has been good for the Blackhawks this season but played poorly last year, Drew Commesso has lacked consistency for both of his seasons in the AHL, and Adam Gajan has frankly been terrible in the USHL and NCAA in the two years since he was drafted.
It’ll also be interesting to see what the Blackhawks do at the NHL level this year and next. Petr Mrazek and Laurent Brossoit (remember him?) are both signed for an additional season, and neither Soderblom nor Knight are waivers exempt.