This report has Panthers fans STUNNED...

This new report has left Florida Panthers fans stunned. Yes, the trade for Connor Hellebuyck came out a couple of days ago, but man, what was revealed in the trade, Connor Hellebuyck's premier choice, what we were going to give up to get him, how the ball was technically fumbled, was this Bill Zito's first miscue on his part as GM of the Florida Panthers. We'll talk about that, talk about the package we were going to give up, talk about how the new GM of the New Jersey Devils previous agm florida panthers how he pulled the trigger and made this one happen a lot to get to as well as talking about the Florida Panthers performance last night this is Panthers Digest i'm your host Greg Andrews comment like share subscribe hype up the video i appreciate every one of you guys tuning in supporting me supporting the channel and the Florida Panthers guys the hat is not anything related to Notre Dame it's a company called Black Clover these hats are called Live Lucky it's for golfers or whoever and um i love their stuff awesome company don't worry panthers uh panthers florida panthers hat is on the way excuse me so uh i don't want to waste any more time i want to get right into this right now Elliot Friedman has come out and reported that yes the Florida Panthers were his premier destination prime number one place of where he wanted to go one thing i can tell you about RGM Bill Zito is he doesn't like to wait this summer what he was planning on doing was let me get my roster aligned i don't want to keep waiting had he waited until this point who would have been our starting goaltender we technically didn't have one I mean if we did get Schmid and he was the one that was starting in net for us this entire time and let's say Black was our backup I don't know he doesn't like to wait he wanted to shape up the roster so we knew what direction the team was going to be taking that's why he signed Markstrom and didn't want to wait but there's more to this in terms of what was in the deal that we were trying to throw at the Winnipeg Jets it's a little more complicated than you think I'm gonna throw a couple of what ifs at you guys this is not part of Friedman's report but it's interesting to think of Panthers made their pitch in a previous deal Friedman reiterated that he believes the pieces were Rodriguez lost round draft picks that they eventually sent out to the Senators to get Brady Kachuk now we know Lundell might have been in there as well but notice one thing that's missing there's no goaltender the Devils did send a goaltender out to Winnipeg one of the things that Winnipeg at the time did not have is thinking about their goaltending tandem of Skinner i can't remember who the other person is that they i think believe currently have right now if i'm wrong i do apologize but they now feel comfortable with having those guys there yes you're getting something in return it's also making the money work which is our previous AGM Sunny Mehta did a great job of balancing it making sure they had the money to get Connor Hellebuyck is eight plus million dollars and what's crazy and hurts a little more of a gut punch to us as Panthers fans is he's signed through the 2030-31 season so what goaltender out there would we look at I'll give you one and I've said this before months ago Vasilevsky will be a free agent if he does not extend himself with Tampa Bay Lightning it's an interesting to think about in a couple of years but this is the package deal there we're gonna take a look at the packages and I'm gonna ask you guys do you think the New Jersey Devils got one hell of a deal because I believe they did They did not have to give up nearly as much as the Florida Panthers were going to give up to get Connor Hellebuyck, which leaves me scratching my head. But it sounded like earlier on in all of this in the summer, they wanted to get a goaltender in there. And I don't think Sergei Bobrovsky wanted to be traded to Winnipeg. He was willing, obviously, to wait till the summer to become a free agent, pick out where he wanted to go. If Bill Zito wasn't allowing him in a trade to go where he said, I will be willing to go there. That's why it wasn't a part of this deal. notice no Lundell either maybe if Lundell was in there maybe they would have made this work but i don't think trading three players and a ton of draft picks for a goaltender who's 33 years old would have been worth it yes Vezina Trophy winner Hart Trophy winner, I get it, yeah, okay, but here we are, excuse me, one second so the one interesting thing, this is a quote from Friedman, he says the interesting thing, interesting to me, is the Florida one possible deal because I do think that was there was a time that Helbicks number one choice I think that he was, that was the team he really wanted to go to and eventually opened up more about going there, yeah he did, but the problem is this, the Jets were seriously about getting back a goaltender at the time, like I just said and that might have been the biggest reason why the deal didn't go through, unfortunately we did get Brady Kachuk and I'll tell you why I still think that there is a kind of a neutral opinion on this, a neutral view that I have about, yeah, it sucks we didn't get Connor Hellebuyck, but we got Brady Kachuk, and I'll tell you why in a second. So, he continues to say, if Winnipeg knows that they're relatively solid in the future with Stevenson and Skinner, there you go, does the deal happen? So it says here, very fascinating thought with this being said, but there was really no way for the Panthers or anyone else to figure out how things would eventually play out. The entire conversation occurred before the Jets even signed Stuart Skinner, and that's why the entire situation was kind of guesswork. Like I said, he wasn't signed at the time, so nobody knew really what was going on. And I don't think Sergei Bobrovsky would have been willing to be traded to Winnipeg. Now, here is what was given up to get Connor Hellebuyck. Forward, Dawson Mercer. Goalie, Nico Dawes. Forward, Nick Bjugstad, who was out for three to five months or something like that. The rights to unsigned draft choice, Alexander Command, or Command, whatever, however you say his name, New Jersey's own second round pick in 2029 NHL draft and their own seventh-round selection in the 2027 NHL draft. I think that's a steal, because look what we gave up to get Brady Kachuk. Now, remember, we did have to move Mackie Samuskevich to get a pick from the Krak, and we did have to move Evan Rodriguez to get Markstrom from New Jersey. But this is what we gave up. We gave up three first-round picks and a second-round pick to get Brady Tkachuk. If that's what we were throwing at Winnipeg, along with Lucierinand and Erod, I don't know why the hell they wouldn't take that, but they took what they got from the New Jersey Devils. That makes no sense to me. If I'm thinking this from a GM's perspective from Winnipeg, it doesn't make sense. But again, it comes down to the goaltending that they currently have. They're comfortable with it. They're okay. All right, we'll take what you got. You're giving us players. We're getting a couple of draft picks, not big ones, but hey, we'll take it. I mean, I just don't get it, but I will say this. I do like the fact that we have a younger Brady Kachuk in his mid-20s. he could be in his prime for the next seven years of his career eight years of his career compared to Connor Hellebuck who probably by that 2030-31 season will start coming down well before he's 33 now so he got what five years on his deal four years on his deal whatever you want to say I think it's five years if you want to do the math on it so he'll be getting up in age there near 40 years old can he still compete and do what he's doing today and we'll see how he plays for New Jersey i think i think he's going to be stellar but we need Marshram to come back and did we shoot ourselves in the foot because Marshram has been shelved he is hurt and that has been one of the biggest problems with him hopefully he comes back sooner than we're all expecting and he's okay he hasn't been bad he's actually been very solid this season can he keep it up can he stay healthy is the biggest thing and here's what we're missing out on with Connor Hellebuyck, here are the easier way to read these numbers not this season season prior to 2.86 goals against average .895 save percentage played 59 games started 57 of them good numbers here's Markstrom in that same year 2025-2026 not great numbers but if he works hard enough with our training staff with the goalie coaches Schmid by the way last night looked awesome and he said he's been working on his odd man rushes breakaway chances in net but I'm not going to say that I am so shying away from these numbers because Hellebuck didn't have a great season last year and neither did Markstrom they were both mediocre to say the least yes Connor Hellebuck's numbers in terms of GAA were less but I would say save percentage let's make it now negligible because again i've always keep saying there's a big difference between saving you know 30 of 33 shots on average in a game compared to eight saving 18 of 20 shots your save percentage will go down with facing fewer shots and letting one or two goals go by but you're still getting the dub that's all i'm gonna say guys so take a look at numbers from last night so let me know what you think down below do you think RGM Bill Zito fumbled this one did he make a mistake are you guys happy with what we got we got Markstrom we got Brady Tkachuk we got two players instead of one if you really want to think of this the right way i think Brady Tkachuk will have long tenure hopefully he finishes out his career here i think he'll turn the season around um he's already shown what he's what he's capable of But we got to see it against the grittier, better teams that are out there in the NHL. He's got to step up in those big moments, those big games, guys. That's what I'm going to say. All right. When he starts to turn it around, then we'll see against the big opponents. And we've got some coming up. So anyways, guys, here we go. Game from last night. Pretty much dominated. But man, those penalties. I said seven penalties in the game. Come on. Some of them I think were pretty iffy calls. I know there was a hooking call they had on Matthew Tkachuk, which I don't, I'm sorry, I didn't see it. But we dominated the game pretty much from start to finish. Schmid, that five-hole, man, he's got to work on that. That thing is, that's his Achilles heel right now, is that five-hole is just so massive. He lets everything in there. I mean, puck sliding on the ice, goes right in between his legs, under his goal stick. My God. But better face-off win percentage for us. We were more physical. We outshot the hell out of them. Terrible with the penalties. we blocked a good amount of shots though overall i think we played better one of four on the power play i like it i'll take it we need the win even if it was against a very subpar chicago blackhawks team that we made look better than what they really I know I'm gonna say every you know every team comes out gives us 110% because of the Florida Panthers okay I get it whatever but still we shouldn't be winning three to two in these situations this should be much bigger win but I digress so let's take a look at the numbers I loved that second line the Verhaeghe Reinhardt Vilminis line. I told you guys that Vilminis was probably going to score. They looked great. Vilminis looked like more energy, a lot more physical, a lot more driven to be on that line. I mean, he looked awesome. Carter Verhaeghe looked great. Sam Reinhart looked great. I mean, I loved that line. Good numbers all around. You can see Hathaway was physical again. Brady Kachuk was physical again. He got an assist. We know his brother Matthew got a goal in it. I think our play was solid overall, but we've got to do that in the moments that are bigger against the better teams. And we've just gotten our butts kicked in those situations. And we saw it against Ottawa and I'm not going to even say the rest of it. We already know who we've lost to and what we need to work on. This team has got to find a way to turn it around and go back to being playing Panthers hockey. I told him when we get back, I have a feeling our coach Paul Maurice has something up his sleeve in terms of kicking guys butts when they get back. So, last part we're going to look at is the defense and the goaltending. Schmidt was actually very solid in the net, except for that 5-hole. My God. But had some monster saves in this game. .905 save percentage, only let 2 go by in the 21 that he faced. Good numbers there. Obviously, Seth Jones being a workhorse again, picking up another point. Just unbelievable numbers this season. He's been great. Ekblad, Forsling, blocking shots. Same thing with Nico Mikula and hits. Gutis, we already know that. And for a second, I thought he was hurt when he lost his skate blade on his right skate. So thank God he's okay. But yeah, overall, I just want to ask you guys, do you think that we lost out big time on the Connor Hellebuyck trade? Or do you think we made the right choice in getting a younger player, a forward, who we know can score, big physical player? I still think he's trying to find his role. And I think him being on the line with Bennett and Matthew works very well in his favor. And I think that's going to probably stay there. we'll see um i do hope when Barkov comes back we maybe see the change in the lines again i mean a lot of things are going to shift but so far don't fix what isn't broken keep going the way things were last night let me know what you guys think of our schedule coming up do you think we fumbled the ball on that do you like the fact we got Brady Kachuk since the Hellebuyck trade fell through do you think Bill Zito did the right thing do you think Markstrom is going to end up being the right choice. He has not been bad. People keep saying he's been terrible this year. He's not been terrible. His numbers have been very good. He's made big saves. His numbers are great. Go look at his stats, guys. Go look at the high danger shots that he's faced and the high danger saves that he has made. Those are the things you got to look at, guys. And also the games that he has lost and put a lot past him. How was our defense in front of him? You can't always place blame solely on the goaltender if the defense was crap in front of him. So give the guy the benefit of a doubt let's just hope he can stay healthy and keep kicking some butt he looks good do not tell me he looks bad i'm not gonna say i'm gonna say he's above average this season i'm not gonna say he's fantastic but above average but that's it guys comment down below let me know what you think big win last night definitely needed it coming up big game coming up i believe it's the winnipeg jets away and then we've got them at home and it'll be interesting to see what happens but man that Connor Hellebuyck trade really was kind of a gut punch especially because our old AGM now GM of the New Jersey Devils Sonny Metta made this one happen pulled out pulled this one kind of out of his rear end didn't have to give a whole lot to get him but made it happen nonetheless kind of a gut punch but i like it for us to be where we are personnel that we have we just got to get our guys back and marshand and barkov will be fine how to keep playing big comment down below let me know what you think until next time go cats