Welcome to the brand new Florida Panthers coverage thread dear hockey fans!

The unbelievable thing has finally happened, there really is one member of this extremely rare species among you! A Florida Panthers fan!

Yeah this self-destructive, masochistic species that is trained over years and years to absorb suffering really does exist! As outlandish it seems we really really root for our incredibly crappy and worthless sports team no matter how hard they punish us with the worst hockey that can be played on Gods green earth!

But finally there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
After years of countless idiotic GM´s, bad trades, stupid PR moves, there finally is a man on top of the franchise that gives us hope, Dale Tallon!

Not everything was golden, what he did in Chitown (i think the Blackhawks fans can give you more input on that), but he built a Stanley Cup winner.

Not everything was golden, what he did in Florida so far (yeah, yeah the Michael Grabner event), but in 2 seasons he completely remodeled, not only team but, the whole franchise including the coach section and the prospects system and it finally looks like our franchise got a plan!

There was so much turn-around under the new regime over the course of the last 2 season, its tough to keep track, especially for other NHL team fans, that rightfully avoided to see Panthers games so far.

Thats where I will try to step in, and I´d like to thank Gates to give me the opportunity to at least shed a little light on this franchise on the edge of the NHL-spectrum.

As crazy as it sounds I´m a Panthers fan since the year of the rat, even if I come from Munich, Germany and i´m only able to catch 2-3 handful of games via the NHL network per season. So please forgive me, if I cant keep this coverage thread up to the high standard that exists in the Black Aces section so far. I feel especially sorry for the crappy English writing skills I will present you.

The good thing is I read and follow everything that is written about the Panthers, that anything that I can get my hands on each and every day and I think I can at least answer your questions and give you my opinion on what happens in Sunrise. Thats better than what that non-existent guy, that covered the Panthers until today, did.

So feel free to ask me any questions regarding the Panthers, their prospects, old players of the Panthers or whatever you want to read about! My doors are open like the doors in Kevin Dineen´s front office. (I am sure that all of you knew that he removed the doors of his front office)

I´m pretty sure that my beloved Panthers will rise the ladder in the NHL to become a respectable franchise in the next few years and I´m looking forward to do the coverage about this rise on this section of the dobberboard.

Still in jeopardy is if I will be still a Panthers fan if we finally made it up there and start playing some great hockey. Maybe I will need to root for the Calgary Flames then, since I´m used to the fact that my team is playing crappy hockey and I´m not sure if my eyes can follow the great and speedy new hockey that I expect to see from the Panthers in a few seasons. The Flames will suit my usual hockey way better when the time has come.

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Member of the UHL,SCFHL2,Kings of Hockey and Commish of UNFFHL
Florida Panthers Team Coverage

Welcome aboard man, nice to see Florida finally represented. I'd be interested to hear your take on all Florida's off-season acquisitions and how they will perform fantasy-wise this year. I'd also like to know what to expect from David Booth and Steven Weiss and whether or not the new guys will help them.

Also, please keep us posted on who seems to be developing chemistry with who during training camp. I'd like to see what their lines are going to shape up to be.

Looking forward to reading more from you man. Welcome aboard!

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Follow me on twitter: @bruins42

Without me, it's only "aweso".

14 Team 22-man H2H Keeper League (Keep 15 - 4th Year)

G,A,+/-,PIM,PPP,SHP,GWG,SOG,Hits, W,GAA,SA,SV%,SHO

Dress:
3C,3LW,3RW,1F,5D,2G,5BN,3IR

C - Malkin (RW), Backstrom, E Staal, Stoll
LW - Zetterberg (C), Datsyuk (C), Whitney, Latendresse, Ruutu (C)
RW - Backes (C), Clowe (LW), Perry, Skinner(RW), Frolik (C)
D - Chara, Letang, Shattenkirk, Carle, Girardi, Giordano
G - Rask, Schneider, Fleury

yeah awesome welcome. great to have another team covered. love to hear about FLASH!!
cant wait for the booth//weiss/flash line.

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12 team H2H Keeper League
g/a/+-/PIM/PPP/SHP/SOG/W/GAA/SV%/SHO
play 4c/4lw/4rw/6d/2g (2min start)
Center: Getzlaf, Marleau, Ribiero, Pavelski
RW: Hossa, Horton, Downie, Franzen, vrbata
LW: Kovalchuk, D.Sedin, Semin, Fleischmann,
Defense : Enstrom, Myers, Goligoski, Wisniewski, Hamilton, Cowen
Goalies: Lundqvist, Brodeur, Pavelec S.Mason,

Farm noteables: Niederreiter, Greiss, Frazee, Kinkaid, Grigorenko

Thanks for the input so far. Will try to cover your requests in the next weeks.


Just a short wrap-up what happened in the offseason, which is a whole lot of stuff overall:

Outgoing: Peter DeBoer (head coach), Mike Duco, Kenndal MacArdle, Thomas Vokoun, Rostislav Olesz, Jordan Henry, Niclas Bergfors, Sergej Samsonov, Alexander Sulzer, Darcey Hordichuk, Steve Bernier.

Incoming: Kevin Dineen (head coach), Kevin Ramsey (assistent coach),Sean Bergenheim,, Matt Bradley, Angelo Esposito, Sergei Shirokov, Keith Seabrook, Brian Campbell, Thomas Kopecky, Jose Theodore, Thomas Fleischmann, Kris Versteeg, Scottie Upshall, Marcel Goc, Ed Jovanovski, Iiro Parkarinen, Yaroslov Kosov, Edward Wittchow, Rasmus Bengtsson, Vincent Trocheck, Logan Shaw, Rocco Grimaldi, Jonathan Huberdeau, Jonathan Racine, Kyle Rau, Bracken Kearns, Nolan Yonkman.

Still unsigned, but expected back: Shawn Matthias

This leaves only Stephen Weiss and David Booth from the pre-lockout Panthers remaining on the team.

Weiss is expected to break several Panthers franchise records over the course of the next 2 seasons. Only Plus-Minus and PIM are out of reach.

In general I want to lower the expectations that some people may have set. I think the offseason moves made them a way better team than last season, but it will not result in an immediate playoff appearance this very season.

I will try to do a short preview about what to expect about all the new faces and about Weiss and Booth for sure. The lines are obviously still in jeopardy. All i can do for now is share my own personal view and what I get from the media, blogs and from the rants around Sunrise.

For now dont be surprised if you are not seeing a Booth-Weiss-Flash line next season. Most rumors and my own feeling are expecting a first line of Flash- Weiss-Versteeg so far.
Booth didnt have the best chemistry with Weiss but clicked way better with Santorelli (resigned this summer), who should center the 2nd line.

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Member of the UHL,SCFHL2,Kings of Hockey and Commish of UNFFHL
Florida Panthers Team Coverage

Welcome KTL. Good Luck!

Welcome aboard KTL- Looking forward to all that you'll do.

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Great to see the panthers represented, good luck Markus!

Now I see why you were commenting about my claim of Roman Derlyuk in the UHL... you were a Panthers fan in disguise!

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UHL Calgary Flames
24-team H2H (roto G, A, GWG, SHP, PPP, PIM, +/, SOG, Hits, Blks, FOW, W, SV, SV%, GAA, SO)

Capped article archive

Montreal Canadiens coverage

Twitter:@DH_EricDaoust.

Welcome aboard KTL! And as you will see by my Flames site, I'm hoping you're wrong about having to switch to Calgary to keep your hockey tastes intact (though I was doing a slow nod to your description).

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XGL Commissioner - 16 Team, Points Only
$108M cap, 54+ Players
2x Reigning Champion

F: Ovechkin, Datsyuk, Kessel, Benn, Couture, Heatley, Steen, Landeskog, Brouwer, Doan, Peverley, Bonino
D: Subban, Yandle, Edler, Goligoski, Brodie, A MacDonald, Cowen, Tanev
G: Lundqvist, Smith, Allen
- - - -
Prospects:
F: Etem, Bennett, Killorn, Spooner, Hartikainen, Gaunce, Mk. Granlund
D: Clendening, Donovan, Lindell, Schmaltz, Forbort, Burlon

Welcome to the family Markus!

There has been a lot of debate over the Panthers' farm system the last few days.

You have quite the interesting team on your hands, and glad you get to cover these guys!

Looking forward to seeing this thread grow.

Enjoy!

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Gates Imbeau
Assistant Manager - DobberSports.com
Writer - Fantrax.com
Regular Guest - The York Report via NextSportStar.com
Email: gates@dobbersports.com
Twitter: @GM_Gates