With the season opener coming tomorrow night in Siberia, the Panthers have wrapped up their offseason moves with a big deal acquiring Vincent Lecavalier from division rival Tampa Bay.
There are quite a lot of fresh faces in Florida this year, which is a good thing considering the way things wrapped up last year. Hudler, Hecht, Lecavalier, Pleckanec, Belanger, Engelland, Samuelsson, Rolston, Hainsey, Jackman, Lydman, Methot and Schultz have all been added in an effort to capitalize on a division that is seeing the other 4 teams embarking on a either a partial or full rebuild.
Currently, the Panthers will ice a roster that will look like
Plekanec (68) - Benn (71) - Hornqvist (67)
Hudler (66) - Lecavalier (70) - Samuelsson (65)
Hansen (64) - Belanger (63) - Grossman (64)
Rolston (63) - Hecht (63) - Engelland (62)
Jackman (68) - Lydman (67)
Schultz (66) - Hainsey (65)
Clark (64) - Methot (60)
Elliott (82)
No name backup
Bolstering the pro team is a quality group of youngsters, some of which are starting to make a real push to make their NHL teams in significant roles.
Gustav Nyquist, Gabriel Bourque, Matthew Nieto, Dustin Jeffery, Calle Jarnkrok, Stephane Matteau, Adam Almqvist, Ludvig Bystrom, Ville Pokka, Dillion Fournier, Damon Severson, Matt Hackett, and Oskar Dansk all have shown flashes of upper end skills, but like all prospects, they need to fill out their areas of weakness in order to become actual contributors for the future.
I'm looking forward to actually having a shot at winning games more than just once in a while.
Panthers ready to contend for Division Title
