Quote:
Originally Posted by Saqe
Yeah like CaliPanther said, Ekblad is their #2 if not three now that they got Jones. For me the more interesting thing is what will they do with Ekblad, Bennett would be a big loss but I feel like the Panthers could cope with that due to their depth. Ekblad is a RD and although he's a ticking time bomb with the laundry list of injuries he's had, he's still really good and always had high hockey smarts. He's going to be harder to replace imo.
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I mean I think that's literally why they went out and got Jones...to replace Ekblad in his role. I don't think they want to take the risk of Ekblad's body holding up long term.
It's either that or free agency. They have $19 million in cap next year without a lot of key free agents coming off the books (Bennett and Ekblad would be the biggest). They already have a top 4 in Forsling, Jones, Mikkola, and Kulikov, with Balinskis as a 5th. They could easily land a big name to plunk in as a #3 and be done. Gavrikov, Lindgren, and Provorov all sound like potential options to me, but I suspect there might be a bit of a bidding war for all three of those guys (assuming none of them are re-signed by their current club).
I could just as easily see them re-signing Ekblad to a 4-5 year deal at around the same AAV.