Panthers' Draft Day Wraps Up

What began as an optimistic draft day for me has turned into cautious, albeit doubtful hope that we made the right decions in this year's draft. Heading into the draft, we learned we had traded away our leading goal gettter and captain for two stalwart defenseman. OK, makes sense. Our defense has been lacking, at best, for the better part of 3 seasons. We needed a change. But knowing this, you would think the actual draft would bring in some new scoring talent to replace the kids we will have to bring up next season (Matthias and Frolik).

Instead, the Panthers drafted a goaltender (#31 overall Jacob Markstrom), 3 defensemen (#46 Colby Robak, #80 Adam Comrie, #190 Matthew Bartkowski), and 1 winger (#100 A.J. Janks). No centers, no offensive threats that will develop in Rochester. Our new netminder, Swedish phenom Jacob Markstrom, will spend the next 2 seasons in the Swedish Elite League, where he's played the last 2 seasons. He will be a #1 goaltender in the NHL in sooner rather than later. The lone forward we drafted came with our 4th pick in the draft. Janks actually sounds like a promising prospect. He played in the Ontario Hockey League last year with the Plymouth Whalers, where he tallied 26 goals-29 assists-55 points playing in 66 games. In the All-Star skills competition, he registered the 2nd hardest shot at 94 mph. He also played for Team USA's U-18 team at the international Hlinka tournament.

The best things that can be said about Janks comes from his coach in Plymouth. "He’s got good size and probably has one of the best shots in the league, from a wrist shot or snap-shot perspective. He needs to work on his lateral movement and stops and starts, but that will come with experience."

Now if only we had drafted another one (or two) of these types instead of 3 more defenseman that likely will spend most of their Panthers career struggling to make the roster. While draftees Rob Belak and Adam Comrie sound like they could become NHL defensemen, they probably will stay in the minors for awhile. I mean we just traded for 2 starting blueliners, why draft 3 more?

So here's what I'm thinking. Our depth at the forward position is all youth. With that much youth on our NHL team, you would think we'd be set for at least a couple seasons with the talent we have. Our affiliate in Rochester may suffer to score goals, but let's face it, who cares? At defense, our youth is a little more suspect. Beyond Bouwmeester, there isn't much in the way of prospects on the blueline. Now there are. Maybe JM knows something we don't, maybe they have something brewing in the free agency. Until the market opens up, we'll just have to sit on our hands and try to digest today's events.

And the Panthers Pick...

With the first pick in the 2nd round, the Florida Panthers select goaltender Jacob Markstrom, from the Swedish Elite League. The 6 foot 3 inch, 18 year old is ranked #1 among European goalies, and led Sweden's U-18 team to a gold medal in the 2007 Ivan Hlinka Memorial. He beat Sweden in the final, and even denied #1 overall draft pick Steve Stamkos in overtime. Said Scott Luce, the Panthers' director of amateur scouting, "We got a guy projected as a franchise elite, No. 1 goalie... For him to slip to No. 31? It’s a good day for us."

Then, the Panthers traded their newly acquired 49th pick plus a 4th round pick in next year's draft to Nashville, and in return moved up to the #46 spot. The Cats used that pick to select defenseman Colby Robak. Robak, who was ranked #13 by Central Scouting, goes 6'3", 195 lbs, and spent last season in the Western Hockey League. Playing for the Brandon Wheat Kings, he played in 71 games and scored 30 points (6 goals).


It looks like the Panthers are gung-ho on solidfying their blueline. With plenty of young talent up front, with the likes of Frolik, Matthias, Booth, Weiss, Horton... the Cats are shoring up the goal stoppers as opposed to the goal scorers. We'll see how much of a chance Robak actually has to make the roster, considering the trades we made yesterday. The 'tender, however, sounds like a sure-fire backup plan to Vokoun in the coming seasons. With the success of Marc Andre Fleury in Pittsburgh (and even Ty Conklin backing him up), young netminders are definately moving up in the world. Markstrom even went 2-0 against Ol' Eddie Belfour in the Swedish Elite League last year. That's gotta be a good sign, right?

As of now, we don't pick again until #80, but moves are being made left and right, so stay tuned.

NHL 1st Round thoughts...

This isn't Panthers related (since we didn't have a first round pick, but we do pick first tomorrow morning in the 2nd round), but I just gotta get your thoughts on this.

Of the 30 selections in the first round of the NHL draft, only 12 were made by teams who were originally in that slot, and 7 of those were in the top 10 picks. That means that in picks 11-30, only 5 were made by the team that was assigned that pick. Is it just me, or is that a little ridiculous? I don't know any other time where something like this happened, in any sport.



Also, just about every player selected is 18 or 19, just coming out of either high school or some junior hockey program. Why is there no public outcry over these kids not going to school for a year? Because that rule is inane. The NBA deems it mandatory that a player attend a year of college before entering the NBA draft. Why? Do they really think that attending classes that you have no interest in, that just get in the way of a kid living his dream will somehow educate him? Change his mind and make him realize he'd rather be a political scientist or botanist or zoologist or any-ist? Just curious...

Clearly, the Panthers weren't the only ones busy on Draft Day.

LOL at this NHL Mock PANTHERS

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/16676-The-Hockey-News-2008-Mock-Draft.html

Vancouver trades the pick and Ryan Kesler to Florida for Olli Jokinen. Vancouver gets the offensive player it so desperately needs and Florida gets another young and promising player in Kyle “South” Beach. Beach has drawn comparisons to Owen Nolan, both in a positive and negative way.

Friday NHL Doomsday for Panthers

2000:

58th overall pick (did not have a 1st round pick) - Vladimir Sapozhnikov He played in 0 NHL GMs.

2001:

4th overall pick - Stephen Weiss (C) 323 games 163 points
24th overall pick - Lukas Krajicek (D) (Traded along with Luongo to Van)
34th overall pick - Greg Watson - He played in 0 NHL GMs.

2002:

3rd overall pick - Jay Bouwmeester (D) 389 games 161 points
9th overall pick - Petr Taticek - Played in 3 NHL games 0 points.
40th overall pick - Rob Globke - Played in 46 NHL games 2 points.

2003:

3rd overall pick - Nathan Horton (RW) 290 games 193 points
25th overall pick - Anthony Stewart (RW) 46 games 5 points
38th overall pick - Kamil Kreps (C) 90 games 27 points

2004:

7th overall pick - Rostislav Olesz (C) 190 games 77 points
37th overall pick - David Shantz (G) - Played in 0 NHL games.

2005:

20th overall pick - Kenndall McArdle (LW) - Played in 0 NHL games
32nd overall pick - Tyler Plante (G) - Played in 0 NHL games.

2006:

10th overall pick - Michael Frolik (LW) - Played in 0 NHL games.

2007:

10th overall pick - Keaton Ellerby (D) - Played in 0 NHL games.

2008....................?


If hockey fans in South Florida want to know the reason why this team hasn't made the playoffs in 8 years, well just look at the above information and you will see that this franchise has a poor history of drafting players. This organization might be one of the worst in the NHL.

Take a look at the 2000, 2002, and 2005 NHL draft selections. Let me tell you a few things about those drafts.

2000 - There was a lot of talent in the 2000 NHL draft. The Panthers picked 8 players in that draft and out of the 8, only 18 games were played in the NHL with a total of 4 points from this draft.

2002 - 10 players were drafted by the Panthers. Besides Bouwmeester and Campbell, the other 8 guys totaled 49 games 2 points. Also, Semin and Higgins were selected later in the 1st round. So much for Petr Taticek.

2005 - Might be the worst overall draft. 0 games played by 8 players drafted. Besides Crosby, this draft was not strong at all. Better yet, 2005, 2006, and 2007 drafted players (22 players in total) 0 games played in the NHL.

So there are the reasons for why the Panthers system is a mess and there is basically no direction for this team in the near and distant future.

2008 draft will not be different from the others. There will be a horrible trade made for picks which will turn out to be just like the above history shows all of us.

This organization really needs to rethink how they operate their hockey operations.

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