FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Sergei Bobrovsky is still with the Florida Panthers, and the team wants to keep it that way.
The Panthers didn't trade their two-time Stanley Cup-winning goaltender on Friday, despite widespread speculation that they would consider accepting offers for him. Instead, the team pivoted toward trying to get a new deal done with the free-agent-in-waiting.
There were offers. None compelled the Panthers to make a move.
“Sergei is a part of our franchise, part of our core,” Panthers general manager and hockey operations president Bill Zito said Friday, shortly after the league's 3 p.m. trade deadline passed. “And we want to try to keep him. I think with almost any player ... you always listen. When the phone rings, you answer because you don’t know what could happen.”
Bobrovsky is enduring the worst statistical season of his 16-year career, with an .873 save percentage. Of the 35 goalies who entered Friday with more than 25 starts this season, Bobrovsky — at 37 — is the oldest of the bunch.
The Panthers don't care about any of that. They've been ravaged by injuries this season and are well out of the playoff chase after three straight runs to the Stanley Cup Final. But virtually all of their top players — Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart, Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand, Gustav Forsling, Seth Jones, Anton Lundell, Niko Mikkola and more — are signed for years to come, and more playoff runs are expected.
Zito wants Bobrovsky to be along for that ride.
“I want Sergei to stay, and look forward to having him back,” Zito said.
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL
Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, right, is congratulated after an NHL hockey game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) defends the goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Toronto Maple Leafs center John Tavares (91) scores a goal against Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said Friday after dissolving Parliament that a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil.
Osmani told The Associated Press in an interview that it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East.
“Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” Osmani said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.”
Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008 after a 1998-99 war, hosts a U.S. military base as part of a NATO-led peacekeeping mission. The war ended after NATO bombed Serbia for 78 days. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s split and tensions have simmered ever since. Belgrade has had the support of Russia and China. Unresolved relations with Serbia have blocked Kosovo’s attempts to become a candidate country for EU membership.
Osmani dissolved Parliament on Friday after lawmakers failed to elect her successor by a midnight Thursday deadline due to a lack of a quorum in the 120-member assembly.
Osmani is yet to schedule the early vote, which would be the third ballot in Kosovo in just over a year. An election in February 2025 resulted in no clear majority and an almost yearlong political deadlock that forced a snap vote in December 2025.
“It is a difficult time for the country, which I hope our institutions and all of our citizens will overcome with maturity and with dignity," Osmani, who took office in 2021, said. She expressed hope “we will once again show that our electoral democracy is strong.”
Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s ruling Vetevendosje, or Self-Determination, party swept the early vote in December and made an alliance with ethnic minority groups to form a new government in February.
The party has asked the Constitutional Court to temporarily suspend the deadline for the election of Kosovo's next president. Kurti has criticized Osmani’s decision to dissolve Parliament as “unconstitutional.”
It was not immediately clear when the court will rule.
Asked about potential security risks in Kosovo and wider in the volatile Balkans, Osmani said “there is always a risk, so we need to be very careful."
Kosovo is “constantly in full cooperation with our U.S. partners and with other European partners and other partners in the Middle East,” said Osmani, who has joined U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace for Gaza.
“I don’t think there is a reason to panic at this point in time, but we’re undertaking every single measure to make sure that if someone ever thinks of that (attacks on Kosovo) that it is absolutely prevented.”
__
Jovana Gec contributed from Belgrade, Serbia.
FILE - Kosovo's President Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu speaks with the media as she arrives for an EU-Western Balkans Summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)
