South Florida had an unbelievable summer last year when they got to experience the Miami Heat’s magical summer, but one year later the Panthers are looking to make their own splash with this class of free agents. Will this be the year the Panthers come back to relevance? Will Dale Tallon be the man to take them there?

On being compared to Pat Riley in a press conference, Dale Tallon has the following comments…

“I don’t have his face and clothes,” joked Tallon. “It’s an honor. I’ve admired him for many years. He’s
a champion and that’s what we want to be. We’ve got support from Cliff and his partners. That’s why
these players came here. They see that we’re committed and we want to win and they want to have fun
doing it. It’s an honor to be mentioned in the same sentence as Pat Riley, but you know we’re here to
win and if we can win as often as he’s won, that’d be great.”

In their 16 years in the NHL they have played for the Stanley Cup once (got swept by Avalanche) and other than that haven’t made it out of the first round. Players were overpaid and deals were made to get players that had large contracts — will it pay off?

With all the new players brought in this summer via free agency and trades we look at who the fans are most excited to have on the team. Jose Theodore, Scottie Upshall, Ed Jovanovski, Marcel Goc, Kris Versteeg, Tomas Fleischmann, Sean Bergenheim were the names thrown out there and Versteeg drew the most excitement with about a quarter of Panther fans saying they couldn’t wait to see him on the ice next season.

Coming in a close second was Ed Jovanovski. Whoever your favorite new incoming player is, we can all hope that the outcome of all this excitement off the ice this offseason translates into more victories for the Panthers on the ice when it comes time to play. It has been a while since the Panthers garnered some excitement and energy in South Florida and hopefully they can take full advantage of it.

The Heat have Lebron, Wade, and Bosh. The Marlins and Dolphins have their feature players, and now
the Panthers are trying to put recognizable talent on their team to not only win on the ice, but win off
the ice as well. With all the known big names on other teams in the South Florida market, it is very
important to the Panthers that they attract more of a fan base to build on the momentum from the
summer.