Quote:
Originally Posted by madmike
The Panthers strategy is a bit hard to pin down. They went all-in last year, trading away multiple 1st rounders to build a team for the present.
Then they tear it partially down to get Tkachuk - which is all well and good, but they won't have any 1st round picks to build around for the next three years.
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The Panthers saw a player who everyone describes as a unicorn become available and they made the move. They gave up 28, 29 year old players who required $7.6M in additional cap to re-sign until both are in their late 30’s and worked out a deal to get a 24 year old for 8x9.5.
I said from day 1 it was a win-win deal. Giving up the 1sts for 2 rentals was terrible but in hindsight they were the best team in hockey during the regular season so go all in. Giving up 1sts for Reinhart and Tkachuk who are mid 20’s former top picks were great moves. Florida has struggled to put a good team together so when they finally had one they went all-in with it. After a disappointing playoff they were able to add a sandpaper type player they felt they were missing.
Early returns looo great for the Panthers as Tkachuk is outpacing last years 104pt season. Meanwhile Huberdeau is pacing for less than half the points he scored last year and Weegar is putting up even worse stats offensively.
They have mid-late 20’s guys in Tkachuk, Barkov, Ekblad, Reinhart, Bennett and younger guys like Lundell and Knight. They just need to dump that Bobrovsky contract so they can add on the blueline but I like the future of the Panthers.