FREE AGENCY REACTION! Florida Panthers extend Reinhart, sign Greer & Nosek | Panther Pourri Express

FREE AGENCY REACTION! Florida Panthers extend Reinhart, sign Greer & Nosek | Panther Pourri Express

hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Panther perie a Florida hockey Now podcast I’m your host Jacob langsam here with me as always is my co-host TJ Peterson and folks it is July 1st 2024 day one of the 2425 season of the NHL calendar and the opening of unrestricted free agency there are quite a few things uh that the Panthers took care of today but the one notable and very clearly most important one of those uh is extending Stanley Cup clinching goal scorer Sam Reinhardt uh it really came down to the wire last night you had you know you had fredman you had uh you had LeBron you had all the Insiders kind of tweeting about oh the Panthers are kind of coming up on time here with Reinhardt there was no filing uh and then basically right at midnight it seemed actually it was at 11:50 p.m. that Pierre LeBron tweeted something to the effect of things are moving in a positive direction uh which you would generally expect with 10 minutes to go before the eight-year deal is off the table if he’s tweeting something like that it probably means good news uh and of course we woke up this morning to the news that Sam Reinhardt has been extended for eight years at 8.625 million per year an absolute steal of a contract yeah if you look at the projected value that Dom Lu shisan friend of the show mispronounced name that I just gave etc etc you’ll see that he’s expected to provide over $10 million of value in every year of the contract which you’ll take that at under $9 million yeah eight years is something that you’re comfortable giving a player like this that provides value at both ends of the ice as much of a cliche as that is he’s a guy that has a tangible defensive impact that we’ve been able to track over the course of years it’s not just the fact that he shot 25% this past season or whatever exactly it was that enabled him to score almost 70 goals playoffs and regular season he scored 57 in the regular season was second in the league behind Matthews who was you know a freak and cannot get caught by anybody in any reasonable world so that was an outstanding output for him so I’m not worried about it being an outlier in terms of his shooting percentage because provided that he is a foil the barov that still dominates five on five and on the power play he doesn’t necessarily need to score 57 goals he can probably do more assisting than he did this this season and still provide a lot of that value that we saw this past season and I mean what we saw this past season was way more than a 8.67 five yeah million dollar player just was way more valuable and you’ve got him locked up for eight years you know what you’re going to get every single one of those years probably not what you got this past season but it’s going to be a good number of goals power play impact and five on five defensive impact what I will say is in terms of evaluating the tangible aspects of his defensive game uh I think a not irresponsible comparable that you could make to to Really find the value of this contract is Mark Stone Sam reard is a defensively responsible scoring Winger uh who had one extremely good season 57 regular season goals uh and if I had to guess I would say that those 57 goals are part of what held up this contract from being done uh it would be foolish of his agent to not try to play that up to get a few extra bucks Mark Stone making 9 A5 million for eight years from Las Vegas Reinhardt obviously comes in a million below that several years later TJ I’m going to ask you a quick trivia question here how many in in how many seasons has Sam Reinhardt scored 30 goals for the Panthers at least 30 goals for the Panthers is it one or is it all of them the correct answer is all of them I feel like it’s got to be one of the other the correct answer is all of them Sam Reinhardt has scored at least 30 goals in every year that he has put on a Panthers uniform in contrast to that at a million dollars more would you like to guess how many at least 30 goal Seasons Mark Stone has had in his career Two the correct answer is zero wow 4 26 23 2 2 2 20 28 5 21 21 9 176 a lot of those Seasons he was injured so there was you know pacing issues uh in terms that he probably would have scored 30 if he was fully healthy in some of those Seasons I’m not above saying right now that Sam Reinhardt is a better player than Mark stone for them being of comparable skill sets I’m not Beyond saying that Reinhardt is currently the better player and we just got him locked in for a million dollars less per year he has a back so that makes him a better that’s a good start yeah Sam Reinhardt does have a functional back I will say I don’t I don’t think well you know what I maybe I shouldn’t say this because Sam Reinhardt literally finished fourth in selky voting this year I was I was going to say I don’t think he’ll ever get as much of the selky consideration that stone got for a Winger but Reinhardt literally finished fourth in voting this year uh so yeah I if you’re closest comparable is Mark Stone but you’re also coming in at a million dollars under that’s a good contract that’s a real good contract for the Panthers Bill Zito another piece of phenomenal work I think that we’ll enjoy this for eight years to come congratulations Sam on getting a nice amount of money for yourself $69 million in total very nice very nice and that was the major piece of business that the Florida Panthers did in the past 24 hours because since then we’ve seen a number of players walk away and I kind of just want to talk about it in a macro sense now we saw Brandon Montour go to Seattle for 7 years 7.14 million more than a million more than Gus forsling will be making for the next eight years we saw Oliver emman Larson go to Toronto with a four-year contract that is a term that I find unbelievable yep uh at 3 and5 million average annual value Anthony sto ours backup goalie last year also went to Toronto for two years $2.5 million average annual value we saw Kevin stenland go to Utah he got to years he got $2 million average annual value and this one hurts Ryan lomberg two years $2 million average annual value back to Calgary reunited with Jonathan hubero and McKenzie we going back to Calgary Calgary yeah going going back back to Calgary Calgary Tupac definitely would have or no not Tupac Biggie would have definitely said it like that I would have said I said Tupac because it’s C so naturally my brain goes to T P but it was B biggy song yeah and I I think one thing worth noting about all of those players and in in in relation to the other pieces of business that the Panthers took care of today every single one of those players got a higher aav than anyone not named Sam Reinhardt that the Panthers signed today I think that’s a really important way of framing why some of these decisions were made behind behind Sam reinhard’s 8.625 the next biggest number that they signed aav wise was Dimitri kulakov at 1.15 million per year for four years yeah so like that should really give you a sense of where Bill Zito’s head was at in terms of letting a guy like Ryan lomberg or oel uh walk clearly Bill Zito didn’t want to throw these these bags of money at these guys and I don’t blame him oel probably doesn’t last four years in Toronto at least his ankles probably don’t um you know lomberg everyone else Montour 7 years 7 mil is I a bit of an overpay uh you could argue market value for a strongly offensive right-handed defenseman uh and I wouldn’t really be able to say much about that but the fact that comparatively he’s making that much more than Gus forsling kind of dampens the value of that contract to me because they you know they the these contracts are going to start in the same year and we all agree that forsing is a better player than Montour overall forsling unlikely to bring the offensive production that Montour had last season but 7 mil for for Montour when we had just locked up forsling under six just seems big uh as for everyone else go get your bag congratulations you know I Ryan lomberg I I was talking to someone on Twitter in particular who reacted Ed to the lomberg news by saying that we could have matched that and you’re right in a vacuum we could have and in a vacuum $2 million average annual value doesn’t seem like a ton but let me reframe that for you Ryan lomberg had been making under a million he had never made more than a million dollars in a single year as an NHL player at least not from his NHL salary Ryan lomberg more than doubled his salary with Calgary now when you look at it that way you you really start to understand why the Panthers might have balked on bringing some of these guys back when you when you the player I like I’m sure Bill Zito offered him two years by at a million each there’s really no reason not to offer that to a guy like lomberg or a guy like stenland but when you’re presented with the opportunity to make twice as much you’re gonna take it you know and those guys are just replaceable in today’s NHL that’s the truth of the matter right it’s not that they didn’t do a good job it’s that in order to be a winning franchise you have to be able to find players in those roles that make under you know $2 million in the case of stenin and in the case of lomberg they make two million now and frankly Utah and Seattle or not Seattle Calgary Seattle signed Montour there’s aren’t going to be winning organizations I mean Calgary’s outright saying that they’re rebuilding and we’re seeing Seattle you know blow their wad in free agency which is we all know that’s not a way to build a successful franchise I will say it’s not a way to build a successful franchise longterm and we’ll talk about Nashville later uh I don’t know if we will because this is Panther pre Express maybe we’ll talk about it in the full episode we’re planning on doing a full episode tomorrow haha Steven stamp Co isn’t in Tampa anymore continue correct but yeah these are these are not franchises that are going to be able to achieve success with because they’re signed contracts like these that’s the fact of the matter but we see it every year you know we saw hubero get the 8-year deal that he got in Calgary they needed to do it because they lost Matthew kachuck he said he wasn’t going to resign there they had to show the fan base something and now that’s the worst contract in the NHL that’s just one example of this sort of thing happening if contract still exists yeah I mean huberto is is not a great example actually no I mean it’s a good examp of what you’re trying to say because age well in that contract good Branson 4×4 he’s a a number six defenseman he was a number six defenseman on a good Calgary team that probably should have gone deeper in the playoffs than they did Columbus gets him they get him 4 million aav rather than the 1 million aav that calgar is paying him and all of a sudden it’s a large problem you just can’t overpay debth players like that you never know when they’re going to fall over an agent Cliff Brett Connelly is is one example of that even though we said we like the signing there was always the risk that he was just going to fall apart cuz he’s a depth player star players don’t really fall apart like that what’s happening to hu for guy like Jonathan hubero apparently that’s a strange outlier but yes it is you know you just can’t give guys like that in in terms of good Branson in terms of stenland in terms of lomberg right lomberg wasn’t even in the lineup every night in the playoffs and now he’s making 2 million a year again he’ll play every night for Calgary yes but just like a character Utah is just like we we want to compete right away I respect that but this isn’t going to make them a championship team that you you pretty much can’t be unless stenland on $2 million a year is one of your three worst contracts the sad underbelly of being a good team that finds consistent success uh is that you often times have to make tough decisions to let fan favorites go and I would point to like the 2010 2013 Blackhawks as a good example of that how many guys were great on that team and then went off to just absolutely crumble elsewhere Andrew lad Dustin bufflin like the these was good what are you talking about he wasn’t his contract good for very long once he went to Winnipeg I don’t know about that there were plenty of examples Brian ble come on Andrew lad is a freaking phenomenal example of what I’m saying it is a good example I’m saying there’s more examples other than Buffalo Pickle’s issue was injury I kind of give him a pass yeah but I mean that happens true and speaking of Brian ble they use tavu terrain as the chip to offload ble contract and now they have Tav Terin and back so good for Chicago there uh but again Panther perie Express yeah I mean this this is the sad fact of winning a cup you’re going to lose some guys that the fans love because if you want to win the cup again you have to resign not resign players you had but you have to go out and sign players to those Team friendly contracts that got you the first one right that’s how you build a consistent winner right rather than you’re just not going to be able to you’re just not going to be able to keep that same team under the upper limit once guys get raises and you and the guys that you have to keep or the forsling and the and the kachu and the I guess the e plads even though they’re looking at trading him we’ll just say that because E’s his own his own thing that like that deserves a whole segment on its yes but e deserves his own segment on a full episode yeah so they’re they’re keeping those guys and you have to work in some new guys that are on the fringes we’ll talk about that in a minute you alluded to it I just wanted to mention the Dimitri kulakov contract extension he got four years he got what was it 1.15 per right so the reason that the four years isn’t a hard pill to swallow in this case is because that contract can be buried in the AHL and the way that contract burials in the AHL works is that if you send a player down on a one-way contract to the AHL this applies to two-way deals too but it’s really only worth explaining as far as one-way deals go you get a certain amount of cap savings once they hit the AHL roster provided they’re not claimed on waivers and all that and the amount is somewhere in the 1 to 1.1 million dollar range at the moment and it’s continuingly continuously increasing so this is a contract that they’re going to be able to bury in the AHL if he is no longer providing the kind of value that he did on the Stanley Cup winning team or you know if he just can’t hang at all you can bury him you can bring up the next Demitri kulakov and your cap problem is not a problem now it’s an ownership money spending problem but who cares that’s not our problem we don’t have to worry about that if Vinnie and if Vinnie and Doug say do it then you do it this this coola COV deal is highly inoffensive for exactly that reason I I would be shocked if he was a regular NHL starter in all four of these years I would be shocked if he was a regular NHL starter in the first two I wouldn’t be so shocked shock VI starter this coming season we’ll we’ll talk more about what more work the Panthers have yet to do kulakov will probably be your third pairing right hand right shot D left I know he’s left-handed he’s gonna play on the right side he’s gonna play on the right side well I guess depending on who else they might bring in um I think it’s I think that uas is playing that left side you’re probably right um but yeah highly in offensive contract uh a show of good faith for Dimitri kulakov who once upon a time was the longest 10year Panther let’s not forget that uh he was the Panther’s first round pick in 2009 I believe uh and by the time that Tom row had taken the team over uh kulakov had was the longest tenur Panther before being traded to Buffalo uh for Mark pesk that would actually be an interesting Target Mark pesk that’s a weird situation to work out yeah a nice little nice little bone for for Demitri kulakov it’ll let him retire a panther if that’s what he chooses to do yeah I mean that’s that’s the coolook off contract I’m checking the monitor just to see if there’s anything coming down the line that we need to discuss like you know they could sign somebody at any minute they could but I’d be kind of surprised if anything happened right now they things tend to slow down around this time on July 1 um yeah yeah we’ll talk about day two Targets on the full podcast yeah um let’s talk about the other two depth signings that they made Thomas NOK signed a one-year deal for the league minimum of 7ou 775,000 $7,000 a year he he’s really really like a wage slave and then AJ Greer two-year deal $825,000 or $ 850 I can’t remember which one it was literally it’s literally the lomberg contract two years at Ag and he’s coming from Calgary correct so they were basically Bill Zito was like What if we could have Ryan lomberg but taller and signed AJ Greer I don’t know if AJ Greer is quite the character that Ryan L was I don’t think so um I guess we’ll see what happens when he actually uh starts living living down here and skating down here and everything uh but yeah AJ Greer I I like AJ Greer he’s you know defensively responsible fourth line Winger he’s he’s not going to hurt you uh not a ton of offensive generation you you won’t see a ton of offense out of AJ gerer uh but that’s also not really what you expect out of him that’s not what you brought him into to do uh and the fact of the matter is that AJ Greer you’re not going to get burned by having AJ Greer on your fourth line same with noek uh whose results aren’t as strong but he does have the physicals uh to be able to turn that around and the Panthers have clearly shown to be an absolute Factory at career Revolution and I mean this is a guy that has experienced playing four rounds in the playoffs he was one of the OG golden knights yeah and he was their fourth line Center as they got within three wins of the Stanley Cup right so he’s been there and I mean they’ve got the the pieces we don’t know what’s going to happen with Steven lorance we know that stenland and lomberger gone gich signed an extension midseason he’s sticking around yay Greer gvic uh no are going to be that’s your four line definitely competing for fourth line spots we’ll see what happens with the maybe aosa runs it back he is not officially retired do not let me lose hope here I hope he does retire actually on the top of yeah that’s not a lose hope thing don’t you want him to retire a champion I want you to retire a champion Kyle so please please do but if you want to run it back with the Panthers I will be thrilled yeah don’t get me wrong I would be more than happy to bring him back for another year but yeah I would be surprised if he didn’t retire at this point yeah I I I think he should retire I mean macki samoskevich potentially but I don’t think he’s going to be a fourth lineer if he does make the NHL now uh no no waves on tereno samoskevich as your third line right wing which is not a a huge problem no I actually think it’s pretty good you you probably don’t want to blow your load on a forward to play in that spot because definitely not if samoskevich does not work then you can just go to the trade lead line and get another teras senko right maybe you can get teraso who knows it could happen I mean he bought a a house in Fort Lauderdale so I he did already own property down here before becoming a pan to begin with though so I don’t think that there’s really much to glean from that I agree but it is worth which is hilarious because this conversation was flipped and that’s how I learned that terasen already owned property here yeah I I think this this team is poised right now to have samas scavage starting the season as third line rightwing uh I mean we still have three and a half months before the season starts uh I guess about three months I think the schedule uh the schedule was released earlier today and I think I think October 8th uh is Panthers opening night I think that’s what I saw uh yes against against Boston I believe uh that’s correct so still plenty of time for someone to show up and take that spot uh but I I think right now the way the way the roster looks at this moment in time at 7 pm. on July 1st 2024 Mackie Samus kevich is is your starting lineup third line rightwing yeah I mean they do have $9 million thereabouts they need to extend londelle he’s an RFA I have no idea what that is going to be like because I think that’s a three he really rounded into sparm at the end of the year I think I think still think you have to bridge him I don’t I don’t think you can sign him long term yet I don’t yeah I don’t think that that’s a player that you necessarily are like I’m absolutely positive that the sky is the limit for this player and we need to give him eight years to make sure that he plays eight years with the Panthers what’s the highest aav that you would be happy signing lundell to an eight-year contract at right now probably five million I was thinking the same thing because my first my first barricade was going to be how would you feel about 8 by six I would be okay with it I I wouldn’t necessarily be happy but I mean this is a guy that he was great in the playoffs he actually led the Panthers in five on five scoring if I if I uh what I read was correct apparent he was like second on the team in playoff points or something second or third yeah that that was remarkable but he was he was very inconsistent in the regular season yes in terms of scoring actually tereno helped him out a lot with that scoring for sure there were there were still periods when terasa was on the third line that they weren’t really doing anything so it’s something that is up in the air for me a player with a lot of potential we know he can score we know that he’s a good 200 foot player but like the dynamism on both both sides of the ice we haven’t necessarily seen it’s not like we have watched him shut down McDavid you know that was barkov’s job but you know we we haven’t necessarily put him out there against the top competition and just notice that he’s completely shutting them down so it’s it’s a player that really could go either way and in that situation I don’t feel all that comfortable with the long-term contract considering this is a team that just won the Stanley Cup so you’re in your cup window now if this was Montreal I would say look you know all this uncertain yada yada yada you could say a lot of the same stuff about the number one pick that they extended today who again I’m blanking on this guy’s name slavkovsky but they’re in a position where they need to just like get as much potentially good money on the they need to lock up that guy at a reasonable value in case he is good and frankly if that contract’s bad that’s less of a problem than if the player is bad because you had this opportunity to get a franchise changing player he doesn’t necessarily need to be a franchise player but he probably needs to be at least on the level of a Suzuki or a c field and if you have an opportunity to get that guy locked up and potentially pay him now for the value that he provides in the future by giving him a little bit more than he’s worth currently on a long-term deal you can do it in that case yeah londell is not quite the same this is a team that every dollar counts because we’re I want to talk about this and you also don’t need londell to be a superstar right he can be dollar counts and also despite being a first round pick you’re not counting on Anton londell to save your team yeah he’s a middle six forward at the moment and you can’t really sett is going into a contract here you might be trying to line up Anton londell as your second line Center going forward yeah we haven’t necessarily seen things from him that make me feel confident that he’s the second line Center on a Cup winner not sure about that we’re I generally don’t like Bridge deals but I think this is a I think this is a case where you really have to just roll the dice on a bridge deal you go 3 by3 3×4 and then hope it doesn’t burn you he balls out this is your cup window like barkov’s going to be in his mid-30s and by the time that three-year contract is over Bob is going to be gone we don’t know who goal is he he’ll be 32 he’ll still be early 30s he’ll he’ll be close to his mid-30s you know kachuck will still be in his prime but we don’t know what’s going on with eblad forsling who knows how they age you want him to forsing pretty well a good scenario if Anton londell is making you regret not signing a long-term contract right that’s the prime of the cup window here right yeah the salary cap lond was tied for the lead uh in playoff five on five scoring uh with 11 points or 13 points uh tied with carder haggy uh the two of them tied for five on five primary points in the playoffs with nine a piece Evan RZ was first with 11 Matthew kachuck was second with 10 nice I love you Rod anyway Let’s uh wrap up the episode by talking about we’ve discussed that there’s now this third line Wing hole that we’re looking at filling but we don’t even know if tereno is coming in so let’s talk about the the gaping hole now on this roster which is the second defense pairing and the right side of that specifically because Brandon monor is gone he signed in Seattle and there’s not really a guy there’s not really a guy walking through that door on this roster right now that I’m like let’s let’s just slot him in the oelf spot let’s just slot binus in I want to do that let’s just do it run it back with binus or but this spot I don’t know what’s happening and it seems like a lot of the big names are off the so I don’t know where they’re going with this there’s a few possibilities you know Nate Schmid is potentially W Ryan Suter as much as that would not really be a good idea no thank you it’s still something they could do like we don’t know what they’re going reason that I disagree with that because the Panthers don’t just need a second pair quality right shot defenseman the Panthers need a power play quarterback that’s that’s one thing that kind of I felt like went a little under the radar uh in everything that happened today the the two defense the Panthers lost two defensemen that’s all they only lost two defensemen but those two defensemen were literally pp1 and pp2 quarterbacks you lost oel and Montour you don’t just need like I’m fine slotting forsling and whoever in on the second power play that’s fine but you don’t just need a second pairing right shot defenseman you need a guy who can quarterback your top power play yeah I don’t know who that those names are off the board and that that’s a concern of mine I don’t know what they’re going to do now this might be a good time for me to put in my pet like go get the Jake Wallman contract that nobody seems to want like pay somebody to retain half of that salary all of a sudden you’ve got him at Uber cheap because I only I think he only makes like three and a half so 50% retained is 1.75 million and this is something I feel like teams can do but they just don’t like there’s a player out there pay a third party to retain their salary like those draft picks are burning a hole in your pocket if you’re the Panthers you don’t really need those guys right now they’re 18 years old they’re not jumping in the lineup tomorrow especially the guys in the third fourth round go out and trade for a player and then use the draft picks to get that salary 50% rettin and this is a player that you don’t even really have to pay anything for we just saw him go with a second round pick to get the Sharks to take on his 3.5 ion for the next two years so you know that that is a depreciated asset y that you can get at a lower value than I think that it actually provides and then if you send the picks to get that salary retained all of a sudden you’ve got one of the most valuable Assets in the league one that we saw Tampa really pounce on the years that they were a legitimate cup Contender you know getting Hegel getting gdo getting Coleman we’ve talked about those trades for years and years and years years this is another opportunity to do something like that if you go after Jake Wallman but that’s my pet Theory I don’t know if they think he’s even good so maybe they’re just not going to do it but I think that he could fit in that spot there are a couple of other interesting did you realize that the Panthers didn’t qualify santu Canin I didn’t but I’m not surprised I did not realize that the Panthers didn’t qualify santu Canan I’m a little surprised by that um Lucas Carlson also signed with San Jose by the way so that experiment is over for the Panthers good for him uh there are a couple of names on the board that would interest me for that spot one I am much more confident would be better in that spot than the other two but the other two may have a much higher potential ceiling uh which is very intriguing uh the one that I’m more confident that you could probably just grab for a year or two at a reasonable price to throw on your second pair and can quarterback your power play right shot defenseman uh has played in the playoffs Tyson Barry thoughts o I did not think about this 2-year-old right-handed defenseman unrestricted free agent coming off a $4.5 million cap hit you can probably get him for a year or two at like you know four four and a half again wasn’t he a healthy scratch in Nashville though so I’m not really sure what he may have been but again the Panthers very good at rehabbing contracts yeah that could be another o but and you could probably get him cheap I’m not I’m not so confident that he’s going to slide into your second pair and be effective of the of the names of of the list of Ufa defenseman right now that’s the one that would probably be most comfortable throwing a bone the two more much more interesting names to me in terms of their potential ceilings are Adam boquist and Eric branstrom uh branstrom is left-handed but he can play on his offs side he has done it before uh and he’s a he Once Upon a Time very highly touted Prospect very highly touted defensive prospect uh I’ve always been a big fan of branstrom I think part of his failures have been the Ottawa effect and he was not tendered a qualifying offer brandstrom is a name that I would be looking very heavily into uh to be able to slot into your roster and even if he isn’t a right shot he can play his offside and he is he has a lot of upside to his game uh boquist a year younger at 23 uh also uh I believe he was also no he was non-ed he just wants out he he just he demanded a trade uh so I there I think there may be something in the works there uh and he is a young right shot defenseman with a lot of upside that just hasn’t worked out uh in Chicago or Columbus where he has played before uh but once again can’t help but keep reminding you people Panthers have been really good at career Rehabilitation uh so taking a flyer on a on a younger guy like branstrom or boquist uh who sorry it’s Bas is he’s an RFA he was qualified but he still wants a trade he is under team control with Columbus uh but he wants out I would be really interested in one of those two in boquist and branstrom I’d be less confident in their ability to just immediately slot in and be difference makers than a guy like a Tyson Barry but I’m very interested by their potential upsides yeah I mean those are two young players in branstrom and boquist that have an untapped ceiling that you know we could have potentially said these things about Gus forsling the thing about the Gus forsland claim though is that he was he was claimed to be a third pairing option he just worked his way in utility uh up the the defensive pairings and I I just really don’t see the guy that I’m comfortable with in the second pairing right now I feel like they need to go out and get that guy Tyson Barry it would it wouldn’t be thrilling but I mean at the very least we’ve seen him do it before Ando says look I I know the skill set it’s a guy that has a defined set of skills that he is exceptional at but it’s you know those skills haven’t translated into the all-around game that allows him to play in the NHL night in night out at least in the past season plus because I don’t think he was really playing for Nashville we’ll have to see what else is out there maybe it’s a trade I’m not really sure who the trade Target would be maybe it is Bokus maybe it’s somebody else Jake wman maybe uh but Bill Zito he’s definitely got to have something up his sleeve he wouldn’t just be like I don’t know what I’m doing next season on the fourth uh the fourth defenseman spot cuz mikola was really the fourth defenseman last year Monto was the number three and I I like Mika but I don’t think he’s driving your second pairing I don’t think he’s a number three defenseman I think he’s a number four so you really got to go out there and get somebody that is capable of driving that second pairing they were linked to Shawn Walker he went to Carolina they were link Shane yeah they it it seemed like that was a good fit but he went to Carolina as well don’t know what’s going on here but in zitto we trust to figure it out Justin Schultz had 26 points in 70 games this season okay yeah that’s another guy that is a potential option and you know I think they’re going to be looking at the goalie position we’re going to expand on that more in the podcast but uh Chris dger is out there just wanted to throw that out there could you imagine I would love it I would love it that would be great that would actually be great anyway so I feel like we’ve come to the end of this Panther Prix Express Jake yeah I I do not disagree I think uh the listeners know where the holes remain and what to look out for from Bill Zito who I answered my own question was not involved in the trade that brought boquist to Columbus uh he was already with the Panthers by the time that trade happened I thought that would just be an interesting Little Nugget to throw in there if it had been the case but it was not uh yeah so I mean I’m I’m happy with what the Panthers have done today Kevin ChatOn Kirk is also available we could probably get him on a one by one or something like that uh I’m pretty happy with what the Panthers have done today uh irrespective of the work that still needs to be done uh signing Reinhardt phenomenal letting a couple of guys go get the bag I’m fine with it uh and no one else that they signed is going to have a materially negative impact on your on your cap situation moving forward welcome back Rasmus aspl that yes I suppose that that too he was he was the one other guy uh who was extended before the Sunday night deadline the June 30th deadline um I feel like there might have been one other person but it it doesn’t really matter Patrick Patrick GES Patrick uh ma herstead friend of the show M dead also extended for a year he’s probably a guy that could come up and play NHL minutes for you this season he’s done it but I mean again third pairing right he’s not a guy that you’re going to slot in to power play one like ultimately the biggest hole is a guy who can quarterback your top power play unit uh and we are kind of ignoring the elephant in the room that is Aaron EAD uh who just isn’t a good power play quarterback he’s not good enough at Distributing the puck if you’re putting eblad on your power play you’re using him as a trigger man from the left Circle and if you’re not doing that then you’re wasting his best power play asset Set uh which is that absolute Ripper of a one-time um so I wouldn’t expect dlad to really G Garner a ton of consideration for that spot either the Panthers still need a power play quarterback a power play one quarterback specifically ironic that this is the final year of the uh of the Keith candle buyout uh bring it back we’re paying you anyway come on Keith gandle one year 1.2 million no five on five minutes just qu backing the top power play just stand on the blue line skate across the blue line and throw the puck around that’s all we need you to do so that is uh that is where we sit as of as of July 1 um I am not upset with anything they have done I am simply a little confused by one of the things that they haven’t but Bill Zito has given us absolutely no reason to doubt him uh or his ability to make magic happen so we’ve got a whole summer ahead of us yep we’ll be reacting to the rest of the League’s moves we’ll be reacting to some of the other potential ways they could fill some of these potential holes and we’ll just generally be shooting the [ __ ] I’ll talk more about the parade on the podcast that we are going to record tomorrow so thank you everybody for listening this has been Panther pre Express Jake sign us off uh Raiders five stars at Fanatics HQ in Jacksonville uh as Fanatics has now taken over the official uh manufacturing contract for the NHL’s jerseys um yeah so rate of five stars at Fanatics HQ good night everybody go Panthers

Today on Panther Pourri express, we react to the Reinhart extension as well as losing several players to unrestricted free agency. Plus the Panthers signed two forth line forwards.

This was recorded before they signed Jesper Boqvist and Chris Driedger. Sorry about that.