Panthers Acquire Rights to Kopecky

			2010-2011 NHL Statistics				July 1st Status
To Florida	Position	Age	GP	G	A	P	Years	Cap Hit
Tomas Kopecky	F	29	81	15	27	42	0	UFA
--------------------------
To Chicago	Position	Age	GP	G	A	P	Years	Cap Hit
Conditional 7th Round Pick

The Blackhawks and Panthers are making nice bedfellows in the NHL transaction department, much the same as the Maple Leafs and Ducks and for the same kind of reason as well.

On Monday, the Panthers acquired the negotiating rights to forward Tomas Kopecky, giving former Blackhawks GM Dale Tallon until Friday afternoon to get the potential unrestricted free agent under contract down in Sunrise, Florida.  Going the other way, a conditional 7th round pick in either 2012 or 2013, likely depending on whether or not Kopecky signs.

The Blackhawks' cap situation is a little bit more flexible, but Kopecky has fallen into a spot where he could command a bit richer of a contract than possibly Chicago wants to sign him up to, whereas the Panthers have all kinds of room to overpay him.  The likely number that Kopecky should be looking at is a Curtis Glencross-type deal, which will pay him $2.55 million per season, but Jarret Stoll is in the same age/point category as Kopecky, which could fetch $3.6 million per season.  If I had to wager, that would be the range of salary we'd be looking at here.