Give the Panthers credit for this: They are not scared to travel. season, which begins in the Canadian Maritimes, then shifts to Quebec, Ontario and Alberta before a stop in Dallas. The Panthers will then return home for a few days, only to turn around and spend a week in Europe. Florida will play two exhibition games in Finland before opening the regular season in Helsinki against Chicago on Oct. 2-3.
The Panthers will have a new strength and conditioning coach next season after hiring Craig Slaunwhite from Toronto. Slaunwhite is a personal trainer who has worked with a number of hockey players -- including members of the Panthers.
The Panthers added two defensemen to their depleted blue line Thursday by signing veteran Jordan Leopold to a one-year deal worth $1.75 million and Clay Wilson, who has played a total of 14 NHL games over the past two seasons with Columbus and Atlanta, to a two-year deal.
The Panthers signed goaltender Scott Clemmensen, defenseman Ville Koistinen and re-signed winger David Booth to a six-year, $25 million deal.
The Florida Panthers agreed to a six-year contract extension with David Booth, shortly after the young forward became a restricted free agent on Wednesday.
The Florida Panthers did not make qualifying offers to six players, including Steve Eminger and former first-round pick Anthony Stewart.
After using its first draft pick Friday on a defenseman, Florida spent its final six picks Saturday on forwards.
Jay Bouwmeester was going to be a former member of the Panthers soon enough, but on Saturday, the team moved him out of town a few days early.
The Panthers selected Russian defenseman Dmitry Kulikov with the 14th pick in the NHL Draft and failed to get any takers for free-agent Jay Bouwmeester.
The NHL will hold the first round of its annual entry draft Friday night at the Bell Center in Montreal, and there is still plenty of mystery in who will be chosen with the top pick.
The Panthers have made blockbuster deals at each of the past three drafts, and with All-Star defenseman Jay Bouwmeester on the trading block, playoff-starved Florida might steal the headlines again.
The Panthers upgraded their center position Friday, trading minor leaguer Stefan Meyer to Phoenix for the negotiating rights to 33-year-old Steve Reinprecht. The Panthers then signed the pending free agent to a three-year deal with a cap hit of just over $2 million per season.
Bill Torrey said Thursday that his search for the next general manager of the Panthers is progressing, although a new GM won't be in place by next week's entry draft and probably won't be hired until after the free agency period opens July 1.
The Panthers soon will be housed in perhaps the best training facility in the NHL, with the expansion of Incredible Ice in Coral Springs promising to help attract free agents and keep players in top condition.
Randy Sexton, the Panthers' acting general manager, said Wednesday that the team's payroll budget for the 2009-10 season will be very close to last season's.
Florida Panthers coach Pete DeBoer changed his coaching staff by not renewing the contract of goaltending coach Pierre Groulx for the 2009-10 season.
Panthers general manager Jacques Martin was hired as coach of the Canadiens. Martin, who grew up about 100 miles west of Montreal, called the job `a unique opportunity.'
South Florida businessman Alan Cohen is closing in on a $240 million deal to sell the Florida Panthers to a New York-based, publicly held company that would keep the team in South Florida, two sources close to the negotiations said Tuesday.
The Florida Panthers are being sold. This should not surprise -- although, given the hapless state of South Florida's dysfunctional franchise, I think it only fair that the prospective buyers be made to submit to a sobriety test.
Eager to move Bill Lindsay into their television analyst role, the Panthers on Wednesday dropped Denis Potvin, who held the job since the team's inception in 1993.
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