{"id":188492,"date":"2025-09-11T06:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T06:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/188492\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T06:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T06:45:11","slug":"panthers-to-sign-tyler-motte-ben-harpur-to-ptos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/188492\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers To Sign Tyler Motte, Ben Harpur To PTOs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Panthers are in agreement with forward\u00a0Tyler Motte<\/a>\u00a0and defenseman\u00a0Ben Harpur<\/a> on professional tryouts, according to Frank Seravalli of Bleacher Report<\/a>. They\u2019ll get the chance to compete for NHL jobs or at least a minor-league safety net with AHL Charlotte.<\/p>\n

Motte, 30, is entering the second decade of his professional career. A 2013 second-round pick of the Blackhawks, he debuted with them in his first full pro season in 2016-17 and has appeared in every NHL season since. He\u2019s become a true journeyman in the process. Outside of spending parts of five seasons with the Canucks from 2018-22, he\u2019s also logged time for the Blue Jackets, Rangers, Senators, Lightning, and Red Wings \u2013 never playing more than 70 total games for anyone other than Vancouver.<\/p>\n

If signed, it could be Motte\u2019s fourth straight one-year deal. He\u2019s also no stranger to sitting on the open market for long periods, waiting until September to sign deals in 2022 and 2023. But he picked up a one-year, $800K commitment from Detroit early in free agency last summer, prefacing a campaign that saw him serve as a rather nondescript No. 13\/14 forward. He averaged 11:19 per game over 55 appearances \u2013 his lowest total in a season since the shortened 2020-21 campaign \u2013 and scored four goals and five assists for nine points.<\/p>\n

The Michigan native has never been a high-end offensive producer, only recording double-digit points three times in his nine-year career. He\u2019s a pure energy winger with enough versatility to slot in down the middle, although his career 42.8% success rate on faceoffs isn\u2019t terribly ideal.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll join a Panthers training camp that will have stiff competition for depth forward roles. They\u2019ve made\u00a0Luke Kunin<\/a>\u00a0a late-summer signing while also extending<\/a> a PTO to\u00a0Noah Gregor<\/a>\u00a0just yesterday. Those names will compete alongside a group of returnees in\u00a0Jesper Boqvist<\/a>,\u00a0Jonah Gadjovich<\/a>,\u00a0A.J. Greer<\/a>, and\u00a0Tomas Nosek<\/a>\u00a0for fourth-line and press box spots.<\/p>\n

As for Harpur, he doesn\u2019t have much chance of landing an NHL roster spot. That\u2019s likely not the intent of having him in camp, though. The 30-year-old would bring nearly 200 games of NHL experience and over a decade of pro time in general to Florida\u2019s depth contingent on a two-way deal. That\u2019s an archetype the Cats are missing on their depth chart. Of their six projected non-roster defenders, according to PuckPedia, none are over the age of 25. He\u2019d be a veteran body for AHL Charlotte, should clear waivers without issue if signed, and would be a safer, more experienced recall option in case of an injury to the NHL group.<\/p>\n

That would make him essentially a direct replacement for\u00a0Jaycob Megna<\/a>, who made eight appearances down the stretch for Florida last season but signed with the Golden Knights in free agency. Harpur hasn\u2019t played in the NHL since the 2022-23 season, when he had six points in 42 appearances for the Rangers in a bottom-pairing role. He\u2019s remained in the New York organization since then, but injuries have limited him to just 36 games over the last two seasons with AHL Hartford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Panthers are in agreement with forward\u00a0Tyler Motte\u00a0and defenseman\u00a0Ben Harpur on professional tryouts, according to Frank Seravalli of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[9208,62,57,5141,5,4,63,405,4117],"class_list":{"0":"post-188492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida-panthers","8":"tag-ben-harpur","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-panthers","11":"tag-floridapanthers","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-panthers","15":"tag-transactions","16":"tag-tyler-motte"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115184318799565190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}