Around 10 AM ET Friday morning, the Florida Panthers announced on their twitter feed that some breaking news was set to be announced within the hour. The first thought, of course, was centered around the possibility of the team trading defenseman Jay Bouwmeester's rights to a club that intended to sign him. Or, perhaps, that a general manager had been named. Two hours later, TSN's Darren Dreger announced, via his own twitter feed (naturally), that Florida and Phoenix had made a trade. The deal? Steven Reinprecht to Florida in return for Stefan Meyer. Considering the initial build up, it was kind of a letdown.
Actually, it's not a bad move for the Panthers (who also signed Reinprecht to a three-year contract extension) as he is expected to fit in as their second-line center according to assistant general manager Randy Sexton. Reinprecht spent the past four seasons in Phoenix and is coming off a 14-goal, 27-assist campaign with the Coyotes.
Meyer, a former second-round pick in 2003, has yet to crack the Florida lineup on a regular basis. He's played with the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League the past four seasons, averaging 16 goals per season. In four games with the Panthers during the 2007-08 season he recorded no points.
Litter Box Cats seems to like the deal, and is also intrigued by the Panthers' strategy for announcing the not-so-big news.
On a related note, the Panthers employed a bizarre strategy for drawing eyeballs to their Facebook and Twitter sites: claiming an "announcement" was coming from the team "hopefully in the next hour". The anticipation was a bitch but all around it was kinda fun. Certainly got folks talking.So, with that, we have the first "major" move of the NHL offseason. The big move remaining for the Panthers, obviously, is moving Bouwmeester's rights, preferably prior to the draft. The Panthers made the decision to keep the free-agent-to-be at the trade deadline instead of moving him to another contender. In hindsight, it's going to hurt because not only did Florida fail to qualify for the playoffs, but now the return via trade is going to be far less than it would have been in March. That said, I still think it was the absolute right move. This is a team that hasn't made the playoffs in eight seasons and was a legitimate contender for a playoff spot in early March. Trading their best player at that point would have been throwing up the white flag when there was no need to do so.
Just as a comparison for what Florida could expect to get for his negotiating rights now: Tampa Bay acquired Gary Roberts and Ryan Malone from Pittsburgh for a fourth-round pick a year ago, while the Predators sent the negotiating rights of Scott Hartnell and Kimmo Timonen to Philadelphia for a first-round pick (which originally belonged to Nashville, anyway) prior to the 2007-08 season.
Meanwhile, the St. Louis Blues began their summer on Friday afternoon by striking a one-year deal with forward Keith Tkachuk. A 37-year-old, 17-year veteran, Tkachuk scored 27 goals for a Blues team that surprised just about everyone in the NHL by qualifying for the postseason despite a number of injuries that decimated the team before the season even started.
