NHL UFA Day: Quiet afternoon for Panthers; Jokinen headlines moves
by Donny Rivette on Jul 1, 2010 5:50 PM EDT
23 comments
Can't say it's a complete shock of any sort to find Florida GM Dale Tallon decided against grabbing anyone from the free agency bin. If his staff found anything to their mutual liking, it was probably a combination of high prices and and a lousy fit that kept them at bay. The inaction only fuels further speculation that trades through the summer will be a primary means of acquiring the specific talent they seek.
Then again, free agency only began hours ago, and many days and weeks lay ahead to sign one or several of those still unemployed. And it worked to a degree a year ago in the cases of Dennis Seidenberg and Dominic Moore.
And hey...the Cats picked up a very solid hockey man in new assistant GM Mike Santos. So someone was added to the team, in effect.
Some of the expected names found new homes: Dan Hamhuis to Vancouver, Sergei Gonchar and Anton Volchenkov to Ottawa, Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek to Pittsburgh, Ray Whitney to Phoenix (3 years!), among others. More interestingly is the group of players still without contracts: primarily goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, evidently a victim of clubs leaning toward cheaper and younger, and sniper Ilya Kovalchuk, who has nothing but time on his hands to peruse offer after ridiculous offer.
The afternoon got sublimely slow until word began to circulate via Twitter: Olli Jokinen was a target of the Calgary Flames. Yep...that Jokinen, and those Flames. This after Calgary had reacquired Alex Tanguay (E-5). It just couldn't be true...
Several hours of truly heroic comedy from the TSN Sports Desk contemplating GM Darryl Sutter's impending madness later, the story was verified: Olli signs for two seasons at $6M over the term. The Flames organization is so obviously giddily excited that Sutter refused to speak of it earlier in the day, and the deal remains (as of 5:45pm EST) unposted on their website. But I'm sure they'll get right on that when the Tanguay lovefest (read: sarcasm) winds down. Only in the NHL.
Thoughts on the day? Pleased? Not pleased? Someone you had in mind for a contract?
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Tallon via Steve X/Sun-Sentinel:
It was a long day, a lot of phone calls, a lot of conversation. We made a couple of offers to some players. We’re just waiting to see where that leads.
It's up now...
http://flames.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=533562
Florida Panthers: Giving the league a punching bag since 2000.
Eventually they’d get around to it. Delusion on the Red Mile.
by Donny Rivette on Jul 1, 2010 7:02 PM EDT up reply actions
Panther Ownership?
Why purchase a NHL hockey team and not be able to max out the cap? Why are we always on the cheap? Will the Panthers ever be able to pick up another Pavel Bure type superstar?
Ok…
Owners are free to spend to the cap if they wish. Many – if not most – clubs have an “internal”, double-secret cap. The Panthers were among the upper-third of payrolls last season, and got them nowhere, among other haunting issues.
Responsible drafting/signing/trading/spending are all priorities for the Cats. Not to say they weren’t perviously, but rarely all at once.
As for Bure; there aren’t many of those in the league now as it is. Who would you want?
by Donny Rivette on Jul 1, 2010 7:09 PM EDT up reply actions
Fresh Mike Santos goodness...heads-up, ROC faithful
Tallon said Santos will work closely with AHL Rochester’s director of player personnel Jody Gage and the rest of the Americans brass, so it looks like the Panthers’ rocky relationship with its minor-league affiliate can be smoothed over. In fact, Tallon said Santos and Gage were on the phone all day working together to sign some AHL free agents.
Lombardi
I gotta say out of all the guys left on the market I would love to see the Panthers land Matthew Lombardi. Heck, if they signed him and no one else I would consider free agency a win for the Cats.
by SunshineStateHockey on Jul 1, 2010 9:20 PM EDT reply actions
Still out there. Kinda reassuring that no one else overpaid for him on day one.
by Donny Rivette on Jul 1, 2010 10:00 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I would have liked one of those defencemen but other than that there weren’t many good fits out there for us. No move may have been the best move.
I'm curious...
to see what Tallon & Co. will do about the center position if a guy like Lombardi is no longer available, and all they essentially have currently on the roster is Weiss and Reinprecht. I personally don’t think that Matthias is ready to be a full-time center in the NHL, and if Tallon is of the same sentiment, then they’re(The Cats) are looking to either pick up 2 centermen today, or think they can make a winger like Stillman or Olesz a center, which also makes me giggle.
Disagree with you on Matthias completely; he’s ready to start at center on the third or fourth line. Reinprecht is the one I worry about, as he wasn’t much of a two-way player for us at all last year, and on a team with little scoring, the defensive side of things is much more important for forwards who can’t produce on the scoresheet.
I would love to see us pick up Lombardi, but I’m not too confident that he’s a better centerman than Weiss is. Weiss is highly underrated.
The bulk of any action will come through trades at this point. Maybe one UFA pickup.
by Donny Rivette on Jul 2, 2010 12:02 PM EDT up reply actions
The org has time to figure out where they stand, after a frenetic couple of weeks: Tallon’s hiring, draft prep, draft weekend, UFA prep, UFA day, etc. Now they can evaluate the entire franchise from top to bottom. I’m not expecting any moves for a while, tho they may have other ideas. The action will come eventually.
by Donny Rivette on Jul 2, 2010 12:05 PM EDT up reply actions
Chris Higgins to the Panthers?
According to GR, USA Today reporting this rumor…
Officially confirmed by GR.
I like this deal. Cheap and could catch lightning in a bottle.
by panthersfan27 on Jul 2, 2010 1:46 PM EDT up reply actions
All about the potential upside. Let him earn it.
by Donny Rivette on Jul 2, 2010 1:50 PM EDT up reply actions
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