This offseason has brought some positives & negatives and id like to hear everyones opinion it, i think positive defenitly has to be the fact we will defenitely be a more veteran team out there will be no doubt we will be able to compete w/ any team we face and we wont look so overmatched like we've been in the past. Also i know many of you are big fans of our young players and i am to but we cant field a team of minor leaguers out there, no matter how talented some of these players are its no fun watching us lose regularly w/ the hope they become real good fast. It was good to see the Panthers get some veteran talent who can still play and ease these players into there roles instead of having the pressure to star for us. On the negative, seeing how the Panthers had positioned themselves for free-agency and the money they have spent, i think they could've done better, i agree w/ the moves for Niewendyk, Roberts and Gelinas, (although id rather have had a Peter Forsberg in place of Joe & Gary),but Stumpel doesnt make any sense & trading of Weiss i think would be a big mistake to have him fit in. Gratton is a decent player, the knock on him was always the money he made but for what he is its not a bad signing , however i think John Leclair would have been a good option, i know hes old as well, but he could have played on our first line , while having a solid 2nd line w/ joe and gary and wouldve been excellent on the power play. And in final the biggest problem hasnt been solved, no scoring winger and no D-man. Anyway u look at it, the panthers came out winners, only because the product we've had has been mediocre, but its interesting to look at what couldve been.
Positives
1. Picking up some veteran cup-winners on offense.
2. Filling out the top 2 lines without breaking the bank. If you think about it, Keenan has positioned the Panthers to ice a (hopefully) competitive team even if Jokinen holds out, which is amazing given that we only had Jokinen, Huselius and Horton as top 2 line guys in July.
3. Moving up to get McArdle.
4. Not giving out any huge contracts to young unproven RFAs. Keenan is setting the scale for the next few years and isn't giving out any gift contracts that could come back to haunt Florida.
Negatives
1. No top 4 D added.
2. Losing Roussin for nothing
3. No true top line scoring winger added.
4. Firing Malarchuk, then failing to hire Francois Allaire
Some will say that pissing off Luongo is a huge negative, but I'm happy with Keenan for using his leverage in arbitration and counting on signing Luongo to a long, rich deal next summer.
Positives
1. Picking up some veteran cup-winners on offense.
2. Filling out the top 2 lines without breaking the bank. If you think of it, Keenan has positioned the Panthers to ice a (hopefully) competitive team even if Jokinen holds out, which is amazing given that we only had Jokinen, Huselius and Horton as top 2 line guys in July.
3. Moving up to get McArdle.
4. Not giving out any huge contracts to young unproven RFAs. Keenan is setting the scale for the next few years and isn't giving out any gift contracts that could come back to haunt Florida.
Negatives
1. Losing Roussin for nothing
2. No top 4 D added.
3. Firing Malarchuk, then failing to hire Francois Allaire
4. No true top line scoring winger added.
I agree and would add(maybe said a little differently in some cases)
Positive
1)no long term deals that can hurt us if players do not perform
2)no really big contracts that can hurt us if any one player is injured
3)no really big contracts to stop us from signing the kids as they get older including luongo
4)keeping money for the free agents of next season when players will be much cheaper because of years 29,30 and 31 being free agents and nobody having room. Look at Martin St. Louis,Richards, Chara,Redden, Hossa, Jovo,etc. Where are they going to find cap room?
5)most importantly getting really good character players for our young guns to emulate.
1) not 1 clear, legitimate 1st line talent (although the depth looks great IMO, and if all 4 lines prove to be productive, perhaps not breaking the bank for 1 big name will prove genius)
2) apparently committing to Kiwi and Krapo as our 3rd pairing (the Hill signing was okay, but not enough on the blueline; although i like novak and krajicek and both need time at some point, we are in trouble beyond Van Ryn (unsigned), Bouwmeester (unsigned), and Hill; I am NOT a mezei fan)
3) Not signing Luongo to a max., longterm deal, no matter the strategic rationalization for taking him to arbitration. Rule of thumb: don't **** around w/ your franchise player. BTW, fans who NOW want to belittle Luongo's accomplishments (or lack thereof) b/c of his asking price, keep in mind that no goalie could have taken the FLA teams he has backstopped to the postseason, he is the ONLY reason FLA has even had a sniff of a chance at the eighth spot, and anyone who wants to introduce the Theodore comparison: Jose has and has had a TON more to work w/ in front of him than Roberto has ever had.
*assuming Luongo does get inked, our blueline situation is really starting to worry me
Negatives
1- failing to land top scorer like naslund, foresberg. i am sure keenen made a push for them but the asking price was prolly too much
2- still not signing our top four, but i think that they will be b4 camp.
positives
1 leadership added
2 experience added
3 gritt added
4 heart added
5 face off help
6- jacques martin
Just out of curiousity, wouldn't this question be better suited until at least a season has been played?
Couldn't all the negatives that were listed actually surprise and turn into some positives? and vise versa? I don't see why not...
Not signing a legit #1 scorer or a top 4 d-man could actually be a good thing in my eyes being the ones that will become UFA next year...
While all the teams that pretty much maxed out their roster for this season will not have the money to sign those stars for the next couple of years but the Panthers remain in the position to do so if they decide to increase their budget for next year
Point is there really is no positives or negatives until a season has gone by because we can't really base anything on last season since there was none!
At least, Weiss will learn how to become a Nieuwendyk,
Stewart and Horton how to become a Gary Roberts,
Kreps and Olesz how to become a Stumpel,
Greg Campbell hom to become a Gelinas.
They have 2 years ahead to learn it.
-
Too many veterans, less spots for the talented youngsters. It's a radical change after the last seasons of sending the youngest line up...
1. veteran leadership FINALLY.
2. grit
3. realistic offensive options
4. MAD forward depth
5. room to add talent remains after we sign our rfa players
6. d is improved by adding toughness and removing biron
7. mike didnt mortgage the world to get pronger (jbo, horton, and krajicek or novak would roughly equal what edm gave up). pronger for jbo straight up id be tempted to do, but not half our future for one guy.
8. bertuzzi's thug coward ass is still in vancouver. i liked him til he started throwing ***** ass cheap shots on the ice. be a man bert. especially when youre a foot taller and 40 lbs heavier.
negative:
1. four guys unsigned
2. no hot damn explosive offensive firepower, its not line 1a and 1b, its 2a, 2b, 3, and 4.
3. we didnt get pronger or mogilny, though both cost their new teams too much IMO.
to everyone that keeps saying we didnt add a top four dman, remember that hill has yet to play a game for us. im not saying the guy is gonna be a norris finalist, but i think youd have to REALLY stretch it to say the guy isnt a top 4 dman.
At least, Weiss will learn how to become a Nieuwendyk,
Stewart and Horton how to become a Gary Roberts,
Kreps and Olesz how to become a Stumpel,
Greg Campbell hom to become a Gelinas.
They have 2 years ahead to learn it.t.
-
Too many veterans, less spots for the talented youngsters. It's a radical change after the last seasons of sending the youngest line up...
If Olesz becomes a stumpel, hes a bust. Also id rather have Peter Forsberg than anyone fom next years UFA's, and he was available & pretty reasonable compared to what Lecavalier got which was outragous. Waiting "next year" i think is a defeatist mentality, we had a chance to bring in 1st line talent here and the Panthers settled for depth players and yes on good teams, Stanley Cup contending teams, Joe and Gary are 2nd line players and the rest we got 3rd and 4th.
If Olesz becomes a stumpel, hes a bust. Also id rather have Peter Forsberg than anyone fom next years UFA's, and he was available & pretty reasonable compared to what Lecavalier got which was outragous. Waiting "next year" i think is a defeatist mentality, we had a chance to bring in 1st line talent here and the Panthers settled for depth players and yes on good teams, Stanley Cup contending teams, Joe and Gary are 2nd line players and the rest we got 3rd and 4th.
even if the Panthers offered him the same amount as the Flyers or a little more, do you honestly think he would of signed with the Panthers? I think Forsberg wants to be on a team that can compete for the cup.
Exactly thats the point, if we were a serious player in free-agency he would, how do u become serious? Show him the money. I have a feeling we didnt even give it a shot, and if we did, we probably low balled him like were currently doing w/ Luongo. That doesnt show commitment to winning, the Flyers always have and thats why they have him and also why there fans always believe there going to win.
