OTHL -- The Florida Panthers are known for not holding onto there players for long, and that has really been evident this off-season. Today the team announced two trades, first they acquired Antti Laaksonen from the Mighty Ducks for a draft pick, and then they picked up talented defender Paul Mara from Los Angeles in exchange for Mathieu Schneider and Denis Gauthier. The Panthers also recived prospect Mark Fraser. This is Mara's second stint with the Panthers, as he played for the Florida based team last season before he was traded to Calgary.
These two trades comes just days after the Panthers brought in Sergei Fedorov, Adam Foote, Jere Lehtinen, Vladimir Malakhov and Mike Ribeiro (who was traded away in the Fedorov, Foote, Lehtinen trade) in seperate trades. And now the question is, will the Panthers be satisifed with what they got? Or will the never ending shuffle continue in Florida?
Last season the Panthers finished 3rd in the east, and made it to the conference finals where they lost 4-1 to the New Jersey Devils, who ended up taking home the cup. But with these recent deals, the Panthers do look like they could make a simular run this season, and maybe even go one or two step further. However, the East looks to be just as strong, if not stronger, then last season with the Bruins and the Flyers having brought in several quality players during the off-season.
So who would be surprised if the Panthers decided to make a couple more trades before the season starts...