Tallon: Team to be ‘patient’ in free agency

Panthers are positioned well coming out of draft

The Florida Panthers’ immediate future should look a lot like their immediate past.

By virtue of last week’s trade for Mike Hoffman, the team addressed a major need for a scoring winger. So when NHL free agency opens next week, Florida could be quiet, at least according to general manager Dale Tallon.

“We’re going to sit tight and be patient,” Tallon said to reporters in Dallas following the draft. “It’s kind of nice to go to free agency and not have to open your checkbook … per say. We’re in a good spot. We’ll address whatever needs we might have and see what the price is.”

Long-term free agent contracts have been poor investments for many teams, tying up cap space and tying an anchor to their lineup for years to come. Teams dish out big numbers for past performance, often time to aging unrestricted free agents.

Tallon indicated that big deals for the marquee free agents would likely not be happening. Forwards John Tavares and James van Riemsdyk are the top free agents on the market and each one should command at least $7-8 million per year for six or seven seasons.

“In years past, we needed to be aggressive because we didn’t have a lot of depth in our organization,” Tallon said. “Now that we have the depth, especially at the forward position, we can sit

back and see what’s best for our future. We also don’t want to block the growth of our young guys with big contracts that are longterm.”

The team could still be active with smaller name players, especially on the blue line. The Panthers signed Russian defenseman Bogdan Kiselevich to a oneyear contract, but could still use another defenseman to shore up a defense that allowed 31.9 shots on goal per game last season, thirdmost in the NHL.

Ian Cole and Calvin De Haan could be targets, though the Panthers need to solve their numbers issue on the blue line. They have six defensemen under contract already (Keith Yandle, Aaron Ekblad, Mike Matheson, Mark Pysyk, Ian McCoshen and Kiselevich), plus restricted free agents MacKenzie Weegar and Alexander Petrovic.

“The price is very high in July,” Tallon said. “As we always say, in July, the player has the advantage. In August, it gets back to us again and we get the advantage.”

While the Panthers could have theoretically tried to address needs for another defenseman with the No. 15 selection in Friday’s first round, Florida opted to draft forwards with their first four picks. Armed with sudden depth that was absent last season, the Panthers selected a draft class this weekend that is heavy on long-term development projects and light on immediate contributors.

First-round pick Grigori Denisenko is under contract for two more seasons in Russia. No. 34 pick Serron Noel is a 6-foot-5 forward with untapped potential, and third-round pick Logan Hutsko missed substantial time with neck and knee injuries in the past few years.

They’ll add to the deep forward group the Panthers possess with Henrik Borgström, Owen Tippett, Aleksi Heponiemi and others already in the system. Florida also left their defensemen pool untouched until the seventh round by picking Cole Krygier and Santtu Kinnunen.

The Panthers only have a handful of potential NHL defensemen in Josh Brown, Riley Stillman, Max Gildon and Ben Finkelstein. Florida could also dip into their forward group to acquire a defenseman down the line.