Adding to the Run

The Florida Panthers for the first time ever are gearing up for a playoff run. At a GM meeting a few weeks ago the Panthers look to strengthen the roster. Something that’s a big change for a franchise that usually sells at this point under Dylan Wilson.

“Our first deal saw us deal a talented prospect in Leivo, it was hard to lose him but we felt we had the depth to make the move. Picking up McKee again, strengthens our D, and picking up a prospect like Rau doesn’t really lose us anything in the prospect department, as Rau is a great young talent who we see doing great things in the pros. His size is a disadvantage but like some other small guys, if you have the talent it shouldn’t be affected.”

“Talking about small players, that’s exactly what our next deal was. Picking up a great player in Martin St.Louis is huge for us and gives us an excellent winger for Crosby. We lost Josefson who is a big loss but we are very deep down the middle that allowed us to move him. Etem was a loss as well but we feel we have many players higher than him on the depth chart.”

 “We then wanted to strengthen our prospect pool again, dealing Schiestel, Crabb and Braun who all were good but buried on our depth chart now and the future. Olden and Basaraba are definitely are projects but we like them enough and both have interesting upside. Adding talented prospects Shane Prince and Jordan Weal was huge for us, both have serious upside and both are playing very well in their leagues. Maybe not in our top 10 in prospects but both definitely have the tools to be in our lineup in the future and have bright futures.”

|”We then dealt Tyler Ennis to frequent trading partner the Calgary Flames. Ennis is a guy we really liked and refused to move for a long time. But we have added a lot of talent to our forward group since and felt that a more complete player in Bryan Little was more useful to us. Little brings a very solid game to our team and still feels that he has excellent offensive potential and can be a great player in this league. And more importantly helps us more now.”

We are still open to making moves, but we are happy with the look of our roster going forward.