A blueliner journeyman is traveling to the Sunshine State with his bags.
General manager of the Florida Panthers Bill Zito revealed on Friday that defenseman Jaycob Megna has signed a one-year, two-way contract with the team. Through the 2024–2025 season, there is a $775,000 cap hit on the deal.
For Megna, it will be the fourth squad in three seasons. He was traded to the Seattle Kraken after beginning the 2022–2023 season with the San Jose Sharks. He was placed on waivers by the Kraken in early January of the previous season, but the Chicago Blackhawks claimed him. Megna played with Chicago the rest of the season, recording two assists in 44 games, which tied him for the second-most NHL appearances in a single season for the native of Plantation, Florida.
Megna was drafted by the Anaheim Ducks in the seventh round of the 2012 NHL Draft, and the team helped him make his professional debut. Megna made his NHL debut with the Ducks in the 2016–17 season after playing for more than two seasons in the American Hockey League. He would fluctuate between the Ducks and the San Diego Gulls, their AHL affiliate, before agreeing to a one-year deal with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2019. However, the following season, he signed an AHL contract with the San Jose Barracuda.
Megan has a career plus/minus of -17 and four goals and 23 assists in 185 NHL games. He has eighty-odd assists and eighteen goals in 370 AHL games, including seven points in 39 Calder Cup Playoff games.
A few years ago, Megna also got the chance to represent his nation. He contributed two assists in eight games during the 2022 IIHF Men’s World Championship for the US.
The former Nebraska-Omaha star inked a contract with the Sharks in July 2021, and he played a significant amount of NHL hockey with the team. During the 2022–2023 season, he played in 52 games—a career high—and was traded to the Kraken.
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