Time to Throw in the Towel and Tank?

[gudzilla]

This.

Viola needs open up his wallet. If he is all talking like every other damn owner in this organization's history, we are doomed to be terrible forever.

I'm with most who think we shouldn't tank. We should try and at least be competitive near the end of the season. Being awful over and over again is instilling the same terrible, losing culture that we surrounded Bouwmeester, Horton and Weiss with.

We have a TON of young talent, but they are surrounded by 3rd liners. They need more quality, top-level NHLers to ease the pressure off the kids. The reason teams like Detroit, Pittsburgh, Boston, etc are good for so long is that there is a winning culture in their locker room, and in their organization. Every newcomer is introduced to it and immediately is held accountable and responsible for whatever role they play within the franchise.

Tallon seems to be pretty good in terms of accountability, showcased with him shipping Versteeg out earlier in the year. The problem is, if the money isn't there, the talent will never be.

I and basically everyone else is tired of losing. We have enough high-end talent that we've picked up from the draft. This team is ****ING FULL OF "potential". We DON'T NEED ANYMORE POTENTIAL, we need PROVEN, ESTABLISHED NHLers on this team. I promise you a part of Huberdeau's struggles is directly related to the fact that he knows he needs to score every night for us to have a chance to win. If we have a Moulson or someone else who can score, the pressure comes off of a guy like Huberdeau and he can go back to playing his game.

Like I said, the time for losing and sucking has come and gone. It's time to start making this franchise a winner. Now, how we accomplish that? Well that's not my ****en job.

cash is king, but the thing is that the only players that sign for money are lesser talents. no franchise player would give up the dream of a cup just to get a few extra $$

we can probably pick up players like moulson, good top6 players that will take the extra money and an a lot bigger role for a few years to prove himself and then chase the cup

 

[ShootIt]

No player wants to come here, whether we finish last or just out of the playoffs. The players that are here don't even want to be here, and our young promising rookies/2nd year players are just biding their time until they can leave as well. It's a cap floor club, with a history of poor management, poor drafting, poor records and poor play.
Constantly changing owners, GM's, coaches and players. 4 playoff appearances in 20 years. Every home game is actually an opponents home game. The actual hockey club exists to fill in the dates between Elton John and Selena Gomez concerts. The entire half of the lower level has seats that nobody sits in. It's really astounding that this crapshow has managed to trudge along for so long. Shows what a lease can get you. 20 years, and I don't even have a glimmer of hope that anything has changed but the names, like always.

Can't disagree withers you wrote. Was disappointed when I went to the game Wednesday and there were way more Ranger fans than panther fans. Not to mention a boat load of empty seats.
Luckily I'm Not a season ticket holder, because with the lack of hockey atmosphere at the bbt and talent on the ice, I have a hard time blowing chump change buying cheap tickets and wasting my time there.
I'm optimistic about the Tallon drafted guys, Just hope We sign some guys So our 18-22 year Olds aren't forced to carry the load.

 

[Dread Clawz]

cash is king, but the thing is that the only players that sign for money are lesser talents. no franchise player would give up the dream of a cup just to get a few extra $$

we can probably pick up players like moulson, good top6 players that will take the extra money and an a lot bigger role for a few years to prove himself and then chase the cup

Agreed. The marquee free agents will have tons of offers and their pick of the litter. Just throwing huge money at them isn't going to get them to come here. They will go to the team that is the most interesting fit for them.

 

[Drugs Delaney]

This team was held together by glue and farts to begin with. I'm not surprised in the least that they are terrible. I thought from the beginning that the team would need Huberdeau to quickly progress and carry their scoring to win but that isn't happening.


The positive is they have some vets to move for young assets moving forward.

 

[Drugs Delaney]

Can't disagree withers you wrote. Was disappointed when I went to the game Wednesday and there were way more Ranger fans than panther fans. Not to mention a boat load of empty seats.
Luckily I'm Not a season ticket holder, because with the lack of hockey atmosphere at the bbt and talent on the ice, I have a hard time blowing chump change buying cheap tickets and wasting my time there.
I'm optimistic about the Tallon drafted guys, Just hope We sign some guys So our 18-22 year Olds aren't forced to carry the load.

In a perfect world, all fans would pay good money to watch a rebuild. In real life, not so much. It's tough because you want to support the young guys but unless they start to market the team as loveable losers like the Cubs, the atmosphere will be non existent.

 

[PSLguy]

In a perfect world, all fans would pay good money to watch a rebuild. In real life, not so much. It's tough because you want to support the young guys but unless they start to market the team as loveable losers like the Cubs, the atmosphere will be non existent.

What's tough is paying over $100 per game as a full SSO and seeing those same or similar seats, even against teams like the Pens or Rags on New Years Eve, going for less than that!

One of the guys I work with paid $80 total for two sideline lower bowl seats for New Years Eve! He also bought a parking ticket for $9.50! Tickets for teams like Buffalo or or Dallas are much, much less.

We have had our seats for 5 years and are seriously considering not spending over $4,000 next season, especially with gas prices climbing. The team has to give us a darn good reason to renew and hope isn't one of them.

 

[Drugs Delaney]

What's tough is paying over $100 per game as a full SSO and seeing those same or similar seats, even against teams like the Pens or Rags on New Years Eve, going for less than that!

One of the guys I work with paid $80 total for two sideline lower bowl seats for New Years Eve! He also bought a parking ticket for $9.50! Tickets for teams like Buffalo or or Dallas are much, much less.

We have had our seats for 5 years and are seriously considering not spending over $4,000 next season, especially with gas prices climbing. The team has to give us a darn good reason to renew and hope isn't one of them.

I was a season ticket holder years ago when I lived down there. Sounds like a familiar story. I am sorry to hear that.

 

[Slick Cat]

No player wants to come here, whether we finish last or just out of the playoffs. The players that are here don't even want to be here, and our young promising rookies/2nd year players are just biding their time until they can leave as well. It's a cap floor club, with a history of poor management, poor drafting, poor records and poor play. Constantly changing owners, GM's, coaches and players. 4 playoff appearances in 20 years. Every home game is actually an opponents home game. The actual hockey club exists to fill in the dates between Elton John and Selena Gomez concerts. The entire half of the lower level has seats that nobody sits in. It's really astounding that this crapshow has managed to trudge along for so long. Shows what a lease can get you. 20 years, and I don't even have a glimmer of hope that anything has changed but the names, like always.

Hard to argue anything you posted. As an original season ticket owner who did not renew this year, I can tell you that I finally had enough of wasting my money on this garbage, and know many others who feel the same. I did not buy into the blueprint before and even less now, and jokemark has effectively alienated the bulk of the true fan base with his amateur car salesman tactics, and he remains the consistent link to this laughable era. I cannot believe how low we have gone. We may like some of our young guys, but I remember that we had Weiss, Horton Bouw, and Luongo, and they are all gone. At this rate, you can kiss the panthers goodbye when the lease eventually does end. What a tragedy and disaster.

 

[CatscratchFever]

Hard to argue anything you posted. As an original season ticket owner who did not renew this year, I can tell you that I finally had enough of wasting my money on this garbage, and know many others who feel the same. I did not buy into the blueprint before and even less now, and jokemark has effectively alienated the bulk of the true fan base with his amateur car salesman tactics, and he remains the consistent link to this laughable era. I cannot believe how low we have gone. We may like some of our young guys, but I remember that we had Weiss, Horton Bouw, and Luongo, and they are all gone. At this rate, you can kiss the panthers goodbye when the lease eventually does end. What a tragedy and disaster.

Exactly, and this post sums up what got me to this point. I realized all these threads, discussions, owner changes, Gm promises, I've heard them all before. With different player names attached. It is a tragedy, I've loved this team for 20 years. I gave up loving individual players long ago, but that logo on the jersey, I still believed I would get to experience those feelings from 1996 again. And yet, we sit at the bottom of the league, again. In a sport where better than half of the teams make the playoffs, we can't even manage middling more than once every 5 years. Pathetic.

 

[SufferingCatFan]

What's tough is paying over $100 per game as a full SSO and seeing those same or similar seats, even against teams like the Pens or Rags on New Years Eve, going for less than that!

One of the guys I work with paid $80 total for two sideline lower bowl seats for New Years Eve! He also bought a parking ticket for $9.50! Tickets for teams like Buffalo or or Dallas are much, much less.

We have had our seats for 5 years and are seriously considering not spending over $4,000 next season, especially with gas prices climbing. The team has to give us a darn good reason to renew and hope isn't one of them.

I feel your pain having been a season ticket holder for more than a decade...

 

[Vieille Barbe]

A couple of years ago we needed to get to the cap floor and brought in and over paid a bunch of middle of the road hockey players who are it now seems are unable to contribute and have very little trade value or are literally unmoveable because of their contracts.

Agree with this. I remember looking at those signings at the time and wondering what the heck they were thinking. That summer generated some buzz around the team, but it planted the seeds of what you're seeing today.

For better or worse, management has committed to the youth movement. I don't see that as a bad approach. But they still need the right veterans in the mix. Not high profile big contract guys, just character guys who will work every shift.

 

[King Panther]

A full on tank (which I am defining as a 1,2, or 3 pick) would mean we see little or no progress from Barkov, Huberdeau, Gudbranson, and the other youngsters who will inevitably be called up before year end. Or in other words, if these players start to develop into the players they should be, then we will not finish in the bottom 3 (top 3 picks). So no I don't want a tank. But with that said, I think we will not be a playoff team, which means probably a pick in the 5-12 range. Im thinking next year we are a fringe playoff team, the year after that solid contenders, and the year after that a Cup winner.

The 5-12 pick ought to yield us another very good player, hopefully someone who has 1st line potential, maybe to fill out a winger spot on that line or something.