2021 Florida Panthers off-season thread. Free Agent Frenzy July 28th

[FinlandPanther]

All 3 of the players you named are huge question marks. Gudas is above his head at the 4 spot. 3rd pairing doesn't look great. In front of goaltending that's a huge question mark. Gotta see the term on Montour but I'm surprised he's back, didn't look impressive to me.

The top 3 is fine and the bottom with Gudas-Montour should be as well. The only hole is that #4 spot. I would also like to see that improved, but it's far from a nightmare. I'm assuming Montour takes some PP time.

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

Goaltending is the biggest question mark going into the season at the moment.

Shouldn't be no issues on that front since most ppl around here deem Bob to be a $10mil backup and Knight is a solid starter right from the get-go.

 

[HockeyRulez]

Goaltending is the biggest question mark going into the season at the moment.

I think goaltending would be fine if we actually had good D. Some guys stepped up last year like Weegs and Forsy but I think some of you are in for a rude awakening. Ekblad hopefully will play well but who knows with his injury. Montour, Nutivaara, and Gudas are all bottom pair guys. Forsy and Weegs are a good second pair. I don't get why we don't get a guy to pair with Ekblad. It's the same story every year since Campbell left

 

[ScottyMascotty]

Montour, Nutivaara, and Gudas are all bottom pair guys.

They are #4/#5 D.

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

They are #4/#5 D.

Montour is a top4 dman. Nuti and Gudas are bottom pairing material.

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

Does anyone else see Vegas pulling a Tampa, trading for Eichel, LTIRing him so he can get his neck surgery and they can go over the cap and bring him back for game 1?

 

[MillarWithASave]

Montour is a top4 dman. Nuti and Gudas are bottom pairing material.

Nuti is bottom pairing, but Gudas is definitely a top-4 d-man in my eyes.

 

[Egblad]

Does anyone else see Vegas pulling a Tampa, trading for Eichel, LTIRing him so he can get his neck surgery and they can go over the cap and bring him back for game 1?

I believe what Tampa did is banned for next season. To be eligible in the playoffs, you have to have played at least 1 regular season game.

 

[Gizmo Tkachuk]

Does anyone else see Vegas pulling a Tampa, trading for Eichel, LTIRing him so he can get his neck surgery and they can go over the cap and bring him back for game 1?

Well now I do

 

[Gentle Man]

Say good bye to Swag

 

[Gizmo Tkachuk]

That dude is still around?

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

I believe what Tampa did is banned for next season. To be eligible in the playoffs, you have to have played at least 1 regular season game.

The LTIR loophole hasnt been removed yet. I doubt it gets the votes.

 

[CaptainScrewy]

I think goaltending would be fine if we actually had good D. Some guys stepped up last year like Weegs and Forsy but I think some of you are in for a rude awakening. Ekblad hopefully will play well but who knows with his injury. Montour, Nutivaara, and Gudas are all bottom pair guys. Forsy and Weegs are a good second pair. I don't get why we don't get a guy to pair with Ekblad. It's the same story every year since Campbell left

Didn't Weegar finish 7th in the Norris trophy voting ? Not sure who you're getting to replace that on the top pairing with Ekblad.

If Weegar was a first round pick instead of 7th round I think he'd be much more appreciated for what he actually gives.

 

[Egblad]

The LTIR loophole hasnt been removed yet. I doubt it gets the votes.

I wonder what I am thinking about then. I could have sworn some changes were made to that effect. Strange.

 

[kerrabria]

Does anyone else see Vegas pulling a Tampa, trading for Eichel, LTIRing him so he can get his neck surgery and they can go over the cap and bring him back for game 1?

I find that highly unlikely given that they are tied to Danault and have like literally nothing to offer.

 

[kerrabria]

Say good bye to Swag

One of the big insiders announced a few days ago that the Panthers were nearing extensions for Bennett, Reinhart and Verhaeghe.

 

[FrolikFan67]

We’ll probably have roughly 3mil left after signing reinhart. Closer to 5.7 if zito finds a way to dump nuti.

 

[Ghoste]

-ghoste

 

[Gentle Man]

They live for that LTIR

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

Gotta bow down to Tampa. No clue what Chicago is doing.

 

[PanthersHockey1]

I think the panthers can still beat Tampa. Give me a rematch.

 

[FlaPanthers11]

If it only costs a 2nd to get out of a cap hole we’ll be fine in 2 years when we’re struggling.

 

[ProjectPanthers]

The defense is going to continue to be the weak spot. I'm sorry I'm not a fan of bringing back basically the same D minus yandle. It's not enough to be a contender. We better score a ton of goals to have a chance.

I have to agree. Defense was by far our most glaring issue last year and no signs show me they will be improved next year.

Even with Ekblad in the lineup they still routinely had to put up 4 goals to win. This same group will struggle again this year.

I was really hoping with the addition of Reinhart that Vatrano would get moved for some defensive help. Doesn't look like that will happen but we are dangerously thin on the left side of our defense.

Not sure what their plan is at this point but this defense will not cut it and we all know it, I assume Zito does too.

 

[radkison]

-ghoste

nhl really needs to do something about this crap

 

[FlaPanthers11]

LTIR has no effect here. Seabrook doesn’t play so it’s not like he’s an addition for the playoffs. This was the same as trading him for a 7th except Vinik has to sign another check.

Edit: Actually Seabrook is making $1.8M more than Johnson so it actually opens up $1.8M in cap space. Not really impactful and certainly not Kucherov