Claude Giroux hints at his next destination next season

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S. Harper
April 29, 2022 (5:33 PM)

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With the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs right around the corner many believe the Stanley cup could remain in the beautiful Florida area. However with that prediction you would assume we're talking about the two time defending Stanley Cup Champions Tampa Bay Lightning. But you'd be wrong as the Lightning do look like that could possibly three-peat, the team many hockey insiders believe will take the Stanley this season is the Florida Panthers.

The Florida Panthers just had best season in franchise history winning the President's trophy as the best team in the regular season. Though winning the regular season is a nice accomplishment, we know as hockey fans it's all about the playoffs. Nobody remembers what you do in the regular season but they do for the Stanley cup. The Florida Panthers loaded up at the trade deadline to make an already good Panthers team even better. Most notably with defenceman Ben Chiarot from the Montreal Canadiens and the huge acquisition of the Philadelphia Flyers Captain Claude Giroux.

The Florida Panthers look to be the favourites to win the Stanley Cup. However there's already talk of where Claude Giroux would likely play next season. The Florida Panthers definitely don't have the space right now in the salary cap to have Claude Giroux on the roster next season, unless they were to unload other players, which is a possibility. However Claude Giroux who's in the last lap of his NHL career has already gone on record saying:

"He wanted to play with closer to home."

The 34 year old star was born in Hearst, Ontario, which is fairly close to Ottawa and Sportsnet's 1200 Radio broadcaster Shawn Simpson ran into Claude Giroux while the Florida Panthers were in Ottawa to face the Senators yesterday and gave the following information:

Shawn Simpson asked Giroux about the possibility of signing with the Ottawa Senators to which Giroux said,

"Would be a dream come true for me."

This doesn't mean it's a done deal obviously but if I was the Ottawa Senators General Manager Pierre Dorion I'd make this a priority this offseason. Giroux would definitely help mentor the Senators young stars and can still play at a high level.