October 30, 2006 in Previews & columns

20 yrs ago · 1 min read

Ex-Powerhouse Panthers Ready For Season

Jan Lapiolahti

GM, Florida Panthers

As we all know the new league salary cap finally killed the already dying Panthers. A team that put all there assests into last season and came short are in front of a hard task. Building a new powerhouse team. There are some pits and pieces here and there like Rick Nash, Joe Thornton and Roberto Luongo and after that there is nothing. Panthers were forced to trade OTHL all time #12 scorer because of the new cap and got back there new #2 center Petr Cajanek his 2nd stint with the Panthers. Last time around he was on the 4th line this time around he'll be centering Rick Nash and Alexander Mogilny on the 2nd line. The Panthers defense looks solid on paper and old too. The goaltending is the only part Panthers can really smile about with Roberto Luongo, Christopal Huet and Tim Thomas in the fold. It's going to be a long season so dont be surprised if none of the players currently on Panthers team arent there by the end of the season. If anyone it's the Panthers GM that can make such drastic changes in such short time.

Here's your lineup

Whitney-Thornton-Iginla
Nash-Cajanek-Mogilny
Letowski-Armstrong-Clark
Hollweg-?-Dimaio

Warrener-Schneider
Mara-McLaren
Spacek-Woolley

Luongo
Huet