As it was expressed in my post about the trade, Tomas Kopecky signed a deal that would pay him $3 million per season for the next four years, which was right in the middle of the range that market value would probably pay him. Not bad. Yes, Kopecky signed the deal on Wednesday morning, continuing the transition of the Panthers into a poor man's Blackhawks team.
Kopecky had a reasonable year with a pretty decent Blackhawks team, picking up 42 points in 81 games with the club, playing more as a 2nd/3rd line player with some power play time. In Florida, I would have to believe that his level of responsibility will rise and without the kind of talent that Chicago has to anchor the team, Kopecky's numbers may teeter on a drop in the 2012 season. Kopecky finished 131st among forwards in pool scoring, which was good enough to be a late round pick in my draft for some teams, so it will be interesting to see if anyone sees his value go up or down with this trade and signing.
| Forwards | Defense | Goalies |
| Stephen Weiss | Brian Campbell | Scott Clemmensen |
| Tomas Kopecky | Dimitri Kulikov | |
| David Booth | Jason Garrison | |
| Jack Skille | Mike Weaver | |
| Evgeni Dadonov | Keaton Ellerby |
There is no question that the Panthers are in the middle of a rebuild and the team has all kinds of flexibility to do it against the cap. With Kopecky on the books, I now have the projected cap number for Florida at $24.3 million for five forwards, five defenseman, a goalie and a buyout. This leaves the Panthers another $24 million just to reach the salary cap floor for upwards of 12 players.
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