#5: Trading for Frank Vatrano

This one may be seen as a surprise, considering that Frank Vatrano has only played 97 games as a Panther in his career thus far. Although, the trade has been an absolute steal by Tallon and Florida.
During the 2017-18 season, Vatrano struggled to retain any playing time as a member of the Boston Bruins. He struggled to find consistency after a solid start to his career as Bruin, in which he had.
After picking up an injury against Winnipeg on December 21st, Vatrano sat out for over a month with injury. During that time frame, younger talents such as Anders Bjork and Danton Heinen overtook Vatrano’s place in the organization.
After suffering another knee injury versus Detroit on February 6th, the Bruins decided to cash in on the Massachusetts native. They sent Vatrano to Sunrise in exchange for a third-round pick, in which they selected Jakub Lauko, a forward from the Czech Republic.
Lauko had a decent start to life in North America, with 41 points in 44 games for the QMJHL’s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. For Boston, however, Vatrano has emerged into the player they had hoped.
This past season, in 81 games for the Panthers, he overtook his point tally from his 108 games for the Bruins. Vatrano was a key depth piece for the Panthers these past two seasons, scoring 29 times. With Boston, he only found the back of the net 20 times.
To go along with that, Vatrano is only making roughly $2.53 million per season and is paid until the end of the 2021-22 season. The Bruins really swung and missed on this deal, and Tallon is laughing at the aftermath, seeing that he has a quality bottom-six forward for years to come.