Player News - Panthers

Date: Team: Pos:

Jonathan Huberdeau underwent a procedure on his hip Tuesday.

Renaud Lavoie of RDS reported Huberdeau played with the injury his entire rookie season, which makes his inaugural NHL season a bit more impressive. The Calder Trophy finalists finished with 14 goals and 31 points in 48 games for a Panthers team that was basically an AHL club by the middle of March due to injuries. Huberdeau is expected to be 100 percent in time for training camp.
Source: NHL.com
May 14 - 6:06 PM

The Panthers will ask Broward County on Tuesday for $4.2 million to buy a new scoreboard.

The Panthers are in the middle of a 30-year lease with the county, and they play under the same scoreboard that the arena opened with in 1998. County auditor Evan Lukic believes the team should pay for the upgrade, while Panthers president Michael Yormark thinks the county should. "We have puts tens of millions of dollars into this building since it has opened,'' Yormark said. "The county has not put one dollar into this building as a gift or as capital improvement. Not one. We've taken loans out, but we're responsible for those. It's their building. They own it. The scoreboard is a permanent fixture. If the Florida Panthers leave tomorrow, we couldn't take it with us. We've been a great partner. They haven't had to put any money into this building in 15 years.'' An NHL representative will be at Tuesday's board meeting.
May 14 - 9:30 AM

Vincent Trocheck has been named the 2012-13 recipient of the Red Tilson Trophy, which goes to the OHL's Most Outstanding Player of the Year.

The award is voted on by the writers and broadcasters who cover the league. Trocheck also took home the Eddie Powers Trophy as Top OHL Scorer after he notched 50 goals and 59 assists for 109 points in 63 games. He also finished with a league-high plus-minus rating of plus-49. "We are extremely proud that Vince has been selected as the OHL's Most Outstanding Player of the Year," said Florida Panthers Executive VP/GM Dale Tallon. "Vince had an exceptional season this year capturing the OHL scoring title, while leading Plymouth in scoring during the playoffs. He is one of our prospects who has matured and developed through hard work and dedication since being drafted. We are excited about his continued growth and development within our organization." Trocheck was a third-round pick of the Panthers in the 2011 draft and he may get a shot to make the big club out of training camp next season.
May 10 - 9:49 AM

Josh Cooper of The Tennessean speculates the Predators could target Stephen Weiss in free agency this summer.

Weiss was struggling offensively before undergoing wrist surgery in March but is generally regarded as one of the best two-way centers in the NHL. That would fit coach Barry Trotz's style quite well, but, unfortunately for Nashville, there's been talk from both the Panthers and Weiss' camp that he'd prefer to re-sign with the Panthers. If Weiss isn't an option, Cooper also mentioned Derek Roy and Nathan Horton as potential targets up front with Sergei Gonchar as an option on the blue line.
May 7 - 10:35 AM

Jonathan Huberdeau has been named a finalist for the Calder Trophy.

Huberdeau will be up against the Canadiens Brendan Gallagher and Chicago's Brandon Saad and is likely the slight favorite at this time. Huberdeau had 14 goals and 31 points in 48 games for the lowly Panthers while Gallagher had 15 goals and 28 points with Saad tallying 10 goals and 27 points. The trophy's winner will be announced during the 2013 Stanley Cup Final.
Source: NHL.com
May 6 - 10:40 AM

Colorado jumped over Florida to claim the top pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft in Monday night's lottery.

The Panthers had the best chance of getting the first overall selection at 25 percent, but the Avalanche hit the jackpot with their 18.8 percent odds. "I've been watching the top three for and have a good idea and feel for who they are," GM Dale Tallon said Sunday. "We're going to get a really good player in the first two picks." If Colorado does the expected and chooses WHL defenseman Seth Jones then Florida could select from a talented group that includes QMJHL forwards Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin, as well as Finnish forward Aleksander Barkov.
Apr 30 - 8:50 AM

Tomas Kopecky will play for Slovakia at the upcoming IIHF World Championships.

Nick Bjugstad (United States), Brian Campbell (Canada), Jacob Markstrom (Sweden), Marcel Goc (Germany) and Tomas Fleischmann (Czech Republic) will also take part in the tournament.

Stephen Weiss has had the cast from his surgically repaired wrist removed.

Weiss said there's mutual interest between him and the team to agree to a new contract in the off-season. "The consensus is they'd like to have me back; I'd like to be back, it's just a matter of the numbers game." Weiss will become an unrestricted free agent in July if a deal isn't reached to stay in Florida.
Apr 29 - 11:18 AM

Jose Theodore wants to re-sign with the Florida Panthers.

He will be an unrestricted free agent this summer if a deal cannot be reached with the Panthers. "I feel I got a big role with this team and like what we started here when I signed," Theodore said. "I never accept a backup role, but that doesn't mean it's not going to happen." If Florida intends to use Jacob Markstrom as their starter next year, as it is expected they will, then it might be best for them to part ways with Theodore and use Scott Clemmmensen, who has one year remaining on his deal with the club, as his backup. Theodore finished the season on the sidelines with a groin injury that kept him on the shelf since the beginning of March.

Dmitry Kulikov had surgery on his right shoulder recently.

He missed the last three games of the regular season with what was originally classified as an "upper-body injury." Kulikov didn't take the next step in his development this year, while posting three goals and 10 points in 34 appearances. However, he still has the potential to be a solid offensive contributor from Florida's back end.
Apr 29 - 11:08 AM

Drew Shore will have off-season wrist surgery.

He missed three games with a wrist problem this year and will have it looked after in Cleveland. The rookie center recorded three goals, 10 assists and a minus-10 rating in 43 games with the Panthers this season.
Apr 29 - 11:04 AM

Ed Jovanovski (hip) doesn't have any plans for early retirement.

The veteran blueliner has two years left on his contract and he was limited to six games this season because of a hip issue which required surgery. "My mind-set is work hard in the summer, get my hip strong, but it's too early to say how it's going to respond," Jovanovski said. "I'm a driven individual and for me playing again is what I want to do and what I'm going to do."
Apr 29 - 11:01 AM

Jonathan Huberdeau learned he has to play with more consistency and that he has to get bigger after playing in his first professional season.

The Panthers conducted interviews with their rookie contingent at the end of the regular season and Huberdeau seems to understand where he has to be better. The outstanding rookie finished tied with Edmonton's Nail Yakupov for the scoring lead among first-year players with 31 in 41 contests.
Apr 29 - 10:40 AM

The latest Kris Versteeg update is mostly positive, but it's disappointing that he might not be ready for the beginning of the 2013-14 season.

The word is that he's off crutches related to his knee injury and that he's shooting for an August 5 date to start skating again. Apparently about two months won't be enough for him to be ready to play, though, at least according to Sunday's estimates.
Apr 28 - 1:51 PM

Eric Selleck returned from a concussion on Saturday.

Selleck suffered the injury during a fight in his NHL debut. He ended up with an assist and 17 penalty minutes in two games with Florida.
Apr 28 - 9:18 AM


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