Wild Offseason in the Sunshine State

It’s been a wild offseason in Florida as the team just missed the playoffs by a couple of points last season. It was known GM PKayne wouldn’t let things slips in the Sunshine State and he quickly got on the phone to shake things up once the trading window opened in the RHL.

Well, the first trade was a small one. We won’t go into this one deeply as the Panthers gave up a 6th rounder to get Josh Brook who still has some untapped potential according to PKayne. But that’s not a move to get the pro team better so we’ll fast forward this one, okay?

The second one was much bigger and should impact the team short, mid and long term. Martin Necas has been a target for a while for the Panthers and they were finally able to get their hands on the 22 year old forward by giving up a 1st round pick, a 2nd round pick and a 3rd round pick. Here’s what PKayne had to say on the trade: “You know, it always hurt giving up a 1st round pick in a trade. You never know what kind of player that pick could become but I feel like we’re in a spot right now where we have a ton of good young players already in the organization like Stützle and Caufield and some good veterans that can surround them. So it’s time to take a step forward.”

In their 3rd trade of the offseason, the Panthers had to let Joel Armia go for salary reasons. “We really liked what Armia brought to the team throughout his journey here but we felt like he was earning too much money to be on our 4th line. We’re kind of cap strapped and needed to make a move to get some flexibility. Getting back a 2nd rounder was a decent return for us and we want to wish Joel a good time in the Big Apple!”

PKayne then came out with a huge splash on the trade market that shook the RHL world. He made a phone call to the Sabres’ GM and asked about Cale Makar, knowing that the chances he would get moved were slim to non-existent. But they shoot their shot. And they came with an offer and keep adding, and adding, and adding until Stu had no chance to say: “Yeah, well, that a shitload of good assets here!”. So the Panthers were able to add Cale Makar to their line-up by giving up these: Sam Reinhart (good luck Sam!), Nils Lundkvist, Kale Clague, Logan Thompson, Gianni Fairbrother, a 1st round pick (that was 5th overall and became Luke Hughes) and a 2nd round pick. PKayne told us: “I know that was a shitload of assets but we were comfortable giving up all these because we had so much quality players, assets and picks up our sleeves. Some guys like Nils Lundkvist and Luke Hughes should become studs but when we were talking about the trade in the front office, we were like… yeah, even if they become freaking studs, we just added Cale fucking Makar to our lineup! So everybody were on board with the trade!”

And then another big one! The Panthers were able to snag Nick Suzuki from the Ottawa Senators along with a 1st round pick (18th overall) in return of Quinton Byfield. “That was a tough one to pull the trigger on!”, PKayne said. “Quinton is a classy young man and is really FULL of potential. But once again, we felt like we were in a spot to fast forward a couple of things to become a Cup contender as soon as possible. Plus we were able to get the 18th overall pick to select Aatu Räty who was, I know, a controversial pick at 18th but he really could become a homerun. He had an impressive showing at the World Junior Summer Showcase and I bet he could have went before 18th if the tournament was held before the draft. Who knows. But we’re happy to have him in the organization!”

Talking about Aatu Räty, we should probably talk about the Panthers’ draft now. They are known to make some splashes in drafts usually, but they’ve decided as an organization that this year would be kind of different, that they would use their pick to get the line-up better short term. And they did it well with the acquisitions of Cale Makar, Nick Suzuki and Martin Necas.

Quick recap:

18- They picked Aatu Räty with the 18th overall pick acquired in Suzuki/Byfield’s trade;

40- They traded the pick to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange of Caleb Jones and two 4th round picks;

94- They traded up to pick Joshua Roy, a promising forward who was picked 1st overall in the QMJHL;

137- They picked Daniil Sobolev, a potential diamond in the rough. He’s a defensively-minded defenceman that hits really hard;

159- They picked Viljami Marjala, a small forward with great passing skills. He’ll play with the Quebec Remparts this upcoming season and they are projected to be a force in the Q… should help is development;

199- They picked Florian Elias, a Deutsch overager that went undrafted in the 2020 draft. He played with Tim Stützle at the WJC and produced 9 points in 8 games. Lots of skills, lots of untapped potential. It’s a longshot but who knows!

So, that’s pretty much it for the Panthers offseason as of now. Free agency is opening soon but the Panthers are not expected to make a splash as they are tight on the cap. They will probably look to add some depth on the pro team and some firepower on the farm team though.

Here’s what the Panthers line-up could look like on opening day:

A.Panarin – J.Tavares – M.Necas

J.Huberdeau – N.Suzuki – C.Caufield

PL.Dubois – A.Copp – T.Stützle

XXXXXXX – N.Sturm – V.Nichushkin

V.Hedman – C.Makar

M.Giordano – E.Cernak

Z.Chara – B.McNabb

C.Price – J.Bernier

See you later, folks!

Mark Kandy, Miami Herald