One of the NHL’s wildest trade/free agency periods (that I can remember) recently took place, and the league should be better for it once the dust settles.
I personally love seeing all the movement with guys bouncing all over the place and putting on new sweaters - making a lot of teams better and even weakening others (*cough*Tampa*cough*).
The Cats were actually more active than I thought they would be by adding via trade, free agency and re-signing a number of players. Take a look at the list below and let me know if I missed anyone.
Forwards:
Duclair
Reinhart
Bennett
Verhaeghe
Lammikko
Mamin
Dalpe
Defensemen:
Forsling
Carlsson
Juulsen
Montour
Goaltender:
Gibson
Monty
Many fans are left a bit frustrated at the lack of improvement to the backend. I for one thought with Yandle and Stralman out, Zito might bring in a solid blueliner or two but the cap situation is getting tough. Maybe he tried and couldn’t get a deal done? Who knows. Can’t help but be a little jealous when seeing teams like Chicago adding some nice pieces in Jones and McCabe - though that Jones deal is too rich and scary for me. As of right now, it looks like Florida is betting on Montour to be one of the main fixtures on the backend.
This makes me nervous because (as you know) I was not a fan of his style of play. I know it was a small sample size with a new team, but it was hard to ignore the lack of defense and blown assignments in big spots. Perhaps I was too hasty. With him resigned, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and see how he does with more time under his belt in a Florida sweater. Just hoping he can put it together back there.
So are we thinking the pairings will look like this again:
Weegar - Ekblad
Nutivaara/Connauton/Kiersted - Montour
Forsling - Gudas
That second pairing still needs a steady guy to be paired with Montour in my opinion.
On the other side of the puck, Zito got to work on re-signing a number of guys that I believe he believes will play a supporting role to the nucleus of this team - with the nucleus now being Barky, Huby, Bennett and Reinhart (from a forward perspective). Curious that a Reinhart extension hasn’t been done yet, but I’m sure there’s some serious finagling going on with the $7,830,378 they have in space and needing to resign both Barky and Reinhart, so we’ll just have to stay tuned…
Watching NHL Network the other day and they had the below as their projected forward lines for the Cats:
Verhaeghe- Barky - Reinhart
Huby - Bennett - Duclair
Vatrano - Lundell - Tippett
Marchment - Acciari - Hornqvist
I know as a fan that I’m biased, but, dang, that is an awesome lineup! That’s four legit lines to me where scoring can come from any of them. I especially like that the NHL Network slotted in Lundell on the third. The kid has been tearing it up and it seems many believe he’s ready to take the next step and be a regular in the NHL.
While I was kind of sad to see Wennberg go because I think he hit his stride in Florida with the opportunity that Zito gave him, with Bennett resigned and Lundell looking to make the leap to North American ice, he became expendable.
I particularly really like the third and fourth lines. I think they’ll bring a lot of energy and do the dirty work each night.
If this forward group can produce offense regularly and take some pressure off the defense/goaltending, this squad could be in really good shape to do some post-season damage. And they’re going to need it because I believe the divisions and league is opening back up to normal procedure, so the Cats won’t have CHI, CBJ, DAL and DET to beat up on regularly.
I don’t know…with the new additions and re-signings throughout the lineup, this is looking like a really, really solid Panthers team - dare I say one of the best?
Can’t wait to see them back in action, just want Zito to chill out on the forward signings for a bit - HA!
What did you guys like and not like about Zito’s moves?
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Here’s a little nostalgia for you before the Sunday Scaries hit.
Schulmistra is kind of an interesting story. According to
Hockey DB he was drafted by the Nordiques in 1992 and bounced around the minors, NHL and European leagues.
He only played in two NHL games ever. One with the Devils which he lost and the other with the Panthers which he won.
For only playing one game with the Cats, he had a nice setup - even with the camo mask.
Florida Panthers Blogger • 
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