Florida Panthers quickie-poll: What's the priority for Cats going forward

by Donny Rivette on Jul 10, 2009 10:10 PM EDT Comment 13 comments

So...now what?

Current Florida Lineup (and organizational "possibles"), as of 07/10/09:

CENTER

Greg Campbell
Michael Frolik (C/W)
Kamil Kreps
Shawn Matthias
Steve Reinprecht
Jeff Taffe
Stephen Weiss

RIGHT WING

LEFT WING

DEFENSE

GOAL

Some prominent names still on the market (as of 07/08/09).

Poll

Now that the initial free agency rush has subsided, which position should the Cats address? (Suggestions in the comments section)

Center

27 votes

Right Wing

13 votes

Left Wing

1 votes

Defense...Bouw's gone: panic!

4 votes

Goal...well, c'mon - they're set in goal - right???

3 votes

Management...there was the little issue of a GM search

10 votes

58 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | Comment 13 comments |

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Comments

PRAYING for a Michal Repik season-of-miracles.

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by Donny Rivette on Jul 10, 2009 10:14 PM EDT reply actions

Goalie

You forgot about Alexander Salak as a goalie

by keithwozniak on Jul 10, 2009 10:41 PM EDT reply actions

Good call, but he didn’t even show up on the organizational depth chart, so I’m not giving him a whole lot of wiggle room to make the big club. No disrespect to him, but you’ll notice Jacob Markstrom isn’t there either.

For those interested…and Keith is absolutely right about Salak as a Panthers “prospect”…here’s the original press release.

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by Donny Rivette on Jul 10, 2009 10:58 PM EDT up reply actions

And to clarify, Markstrom will spend the next season in Europe…no matter what. Probably not an accurate comparison.

An interesting sidenote on Salak…he was signed to a contract with Florida by former GM Jacques Martin one day before JM left to coach the Habs. Check the date on the above-linked press release. Martin resigned on June 1st.

Tin-hat stuff, maybe, but dates don’t lie.

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by Donny Rivette on Jul 10, 2009 11:12 PM EDT up reply actions

Frolik is in the center option……shouldn’t he be a wing?

by CLG_74 on Jul 10, 2009 11:15 PM EDT reply actions

He’s listed on three different sites as three different natural forward positions. Sweet pickup!

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by Donny Rivette on Jul 10, 2009 11:35 PM EDT up reply actions

Obviously the wings we have can be moved around to the off-wing, or centers can learn to play wing. I still think our biggest concern right now should be defense. Keith Ballard and Bryan McCabe are the only pair I feel comfortable with. Jordan Leopold is a nice pickup, no doubts. But he’s had seasons cut drastically short by injury 2 of the last 3 years and is probably a 2nd pair guy at best. After that… yikes. Allen missed all of last year. So figure Ballard\Leopold and McCabe\Allen… And then who? Ellerby\Koistinen pairing?

I think we can make do with the scoring options we have now, assuming Horton plays the whole year like he finished last season, Frolik doesn’t have a sophomore slump, Reinprecht turns out to be the playmaker he’s advertised as, Dvorak and Campbell chip in their 15-20. We could have another year where we see 10+ guys hit 20 goals, and that could work. But if we’re giving up 4-5 goals a game, it won’t really matter.

by Stanley C. on Jul 11, 2009 11:34 AM EDT reply actions

I agree….can I change my vote?

That is one reason why I wasn’t sad to see Olli go…..didn’t matter how many goals he scored & I got tired of people saying “there goes our scorer”. If we couldn’t stop the other team from scoring more, what did it matter how many “we” scored.

We seemed to have it figured out this past season….then the deadline came & went & so did our defense. If we don’t get anyone else for D, then maybe having the J-Bo monkey off of their backs, will improve their play.

by CLG_74 on Jul 11, 2009 1:27 PM EDT up reply actions

For the D...

…there’s always uber-veteran Jassen Cullimore, who’d be a great backbone to match with Ellerby/Garrison. He knows the DeBoer system, and he’s cheap cheap cheap. Cheaper than Steve Eminger.

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by Donny Rivette on Jul 11, 2009 4:14 PM EDT up reply actions

At this point, Cullimore isn’t a horrible option. Kind of makes me wonder what’s been going on in those BAC offices the last week. Lots of signings for Rochester, though…

It’s one thing to be proud of your farm system and have a lot of faith in the future of some of those kids, but you can’t expect rookies to make up 1 of your defense and 1 of your offense and have any semblance of a successful season.

by Stanley C. on Jul 11, 2009 4:58 PM EDT up reply actions

Gotta start somewhere. And there are a LOT of young guys – drafted high – who may be ready for the big game from within the Florida system.

The club is covering its deficiencies. Not by bringing in fading soon-to-be Hall of Famers, but solid veterans (witness Reinprecht/Leopold/Clemmensen), and building through character.

Other than that, they’re still on the hook for a killer signing.

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by Donny Rivette on Jul 12, 2009 9:58 PM EDT up reply actions

Oh, he’ll be back if Ellerby and Garrison aren’t deemed ready. Sexton’s already said he might be interested in bringing him back, and he’s the kind of guy who gets signed late in the summer or after a camp, anyway. Or we might see him again if new Ville’s a bust.

by Johnny B on Jul 12, 2009 11:23 PM EDT up reply actions

The key is getting him on a two-way deal, if he’ll acquiesce to it. But it’s tough to argue – even at his age – that he cannot play full-time in the NHL.

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by Donny Rivette on Jul 13, 2009 4:42 PM EDT up reply actions

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