Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Florida Panthers 2008 NHL Entry Draft

The Florida Panthers will have the 1st pick in the 2nd round. I personally do not think that they need to trade away one of the core assets for a 1st round pick.

It has been rumored for months that Bouwmeester and or Jokinen (Rumored for YEARS) will be dealt during the draft. I will be watching the draft this coming Friday with knots in my stomach hoping neither are traded away.

The Panthers organization will sell it to us simple, Here is what I mean:

- If they trade Jokinen for Prospects and a top 10 pick; it will be obvious that this organization has no idea where it's headed and they are not committed to winning NOW.

- If they pull off a even trade, get a scorer, and a 1st round pick; then I would be the happiest person alive.

The above is basically a trade with someone sending Jokinen.

Bouwmeester is a different story:

- Trading Bouwmeester would be a much bigger deal to me. He is the most important person on the Panthers. He is the organizations best defensemen to ever wear the Panther uniform. He has such a great upside that if he were to be traded, no package can equal what we have in Bouwmeester.

- Trading Bouwmeester would make this team a 30 and below win team: This means no Playoffs 9 years running and so on.



So YEA, Friday is a huge day in Panther history!



GO PANTHERS

7 comments:

Stanley C. said...

Sorry, but Bouwmeester is nowhere near the quality we had back in the Cup run with Jovonaski, Svehla, Laus, Gord Murphy, even Jason Woolley. He's shown promise (as have most of our young talent), but he has yet to take that next step to the top tier defenseman he is supposed to become. Trading him would hurt, but it depends who we get back. We've lacked a top goal scorer for years, and there are options out there.

FloridaPanthers4ever said...

Bouwmeester averages 27 minutes a game.

Bouwmeester has been in the NHL for 5 years and 4 our of the 5 he did not miss a single game!

Yea, you cannot replace a guy like that!

FloridaPanthers4ever said...

and he's only 24

Anonymous said...

There's no way we'll get a top goal scorer and a first rounder for Olli unless we give up big prospects. The fact is we've been trying to build around him as our captain for years, and that's the problem. He is simply not going to ever carry this team. He is absolutely a great player, but he will never be the Zetterberg or the Crosby to lead us to the promised land. We either need to find another player to lead the team and let Olli be the solid player he is, or get rid of him altogether, because I'm sick of waiting for him to do it.

Stanley C. said...

He's averaged 27 minutes a game because who else do the Panthers have? They've given up the most shots or close to the most shots in the league 2 or 3 of the last few seasons. When he came to the Panthers, he was supposed to be the next great defenseman. He's been given chances playing for Martin, he might not get those chances anymore. '06-'07 was the only year he finished with a decent +\- at +23. He was -5 last year. Your top defenseman can't be a minus. He's shown promise with 15 goals last season, but I just don't think he's up to his potential yet.

Stanley C. said...

Don't get me wrong, I think these are 2 great guys, I'd love to see them succeed here, but they've been the face of a losing franchise for the last 5 years. The coaching change may make the difference for these 2, or they might not just be everything I and we hope they will be. It'll be an interesting draft day.

FloridaPanthers4ever said...

Shaun, Jokinen's contract makes him much more valuable. This is why they would also get a pick along with a Tanguay/Sedin/Gab.

lets just wait till Fri and see what happens!