Panthers acquire Reasoner from Blackhawks for Taffe

Marty Reasoner

#0 / Center / Chicago Blackhawks

Height: 6-1

Weight: 205

Born: Feb 26, 1977

In a pure salary-dump move by cap-squeezed Chicago, the

have traded veteran center

to the

in exchange for left wing

on Thursday.

33-year old Reasoner, a first round pick of the Blues in 1996, has scored 223 points (82 goals) in 624 NHL games in primarly a supporting cast role; his best season came in 2002-03 with Edmonton, notching 31 points. He nearly matched that with Atlanta in '08-'09 with 30, while accumulating 17 (4 goals) in a down year last season.

He was a member of the recent CHI/ATL Dustin Byfulien-headlining trade, and has one year remaining on his current contract with a $1.15M cap hit (courtesy CapGeek).

Taffe, 29, has spent much of his career bouncing between the NHL and American League, collecting 2 points (1 goal) in 21 games with Florida while lighting it up for Rochester with 56 points (28 goals) in 61 games as a member of the Americans in 2009-10. He has one year remaining at $0.55M.

So...where exactly does Reasoner fit in? An improvement over Kreps or Campbell? Certainly takes some heat off of Shawn Matthias, but was that the intention?

Is this the opening night lineup down the middle: Stephen Weiss, Steven Reinprecht, Reasoner, and Matthias?

UPDATE: Official release here.