The Florida Panthers had money to spend in free agency, and loaded up, bringing in four forwards, one defenceman and a goaltende

The Florida Panthers had money to spend in free agency, and loaded up, bringing in four forwards, one defenceman and a goaltender on the first day of free agency. LeSean McCoy Jersey . Numbers Game looks at the Panthers big first day of free agency. The Panthers Get: LW Jussi Jokinen, C Dave Bolland, C, Derek MacKenzie, RW Shawn Thornton, D Willie Mitchell, G Al Montoya. The Florida Panthers headed into the offseason giving general manager Dale Tallon more financial freedom than theyve had in recent seasons, and he wasted no time spending that money, with mixed results. Jokinen, 31, had a strong season playing on Evgeni Malkins wing in Pittsburgh, scoring 57 points in 81 games, the second-best point total of his career. That situation is not a luxury that Jokinen can count on in Florida where, despite their young talent, they have no one in Malkins class, but Jokinen has shown that he can be a productive contributor with solid possession numbers when playing with skilled players. Slot him alongside young Finn Aleksander Barkov and that has the makings of a solid two-way line and maybe Jokinen isnt likely to be scoring 50-plus points in Florida, where no one scored even 40 points last season, but Jokinen can be a useful player for at least three of the four years for which he signed, at a total cost of $16-million. Then, things got silly. Coming into free agency, there was a natural connection to make between Dave Bolland and Panthers GM Dale Tallon, given their time together in Chicago, but Bolland is a third-line centre so its really hard to justify the kind of money and term that was given. Bolland signed a five-year, $27.5-million contract, and its just flat-out outrageous. Bolland played well with the Maple Leafs last season, at least he did when he was healthy, but hes missed 142 games over the past five seasons and is coming off a season in which he missed 59 games due to a sliced ankle tendon. At his best, Bolland has been productive, scoring more than 35 points three times, and handled a lot of tough assignments in terms of zone starts and quality of competition, but assuming that hes up to that level now, after his latest injury, seems a tad optimistic and paying money and term that is more typical of a top-six forward is just really difficult to digest. For a checking centre, he also hasnt been very good at limiting shots against while killing penalties. Sure, the Panthers are nowhere near the cap now, and maybe they never will be, but its hard to take a team from being also-rans to contenders simply by paying a checking centre a boatload of money. By contrast, Paul Stastny and Thomas Vanek were the only two free agent forwards to come at a higher cap hit and neither one signed for five years. They didnt get as much term as Dave Bolland. MacKenzie, a 33-year-old checking centre, has been a reliable fourth-liner for the Blue Jackets. He had a career-high 237 hits last season and in four seasons with the Blue Jackets, hes won 54.9% of his draws. Signed for three years and $3.9-million, MacKenzie gives the Panthers good depth down the middle and it looks like Bolland and MacKenzie are going to bump prospects like Brandon Pirri and Vince Trocheck down the depth chart, presumably right out of the Top 12 unless they can fit on the wing. Shawn Thornton is a tough guy whose game has been declining in recent seasons. Hes fought 90 times over the past six seasons, but thats about what the 36-year-old (who turns 37 later this month) can do at this point. Whether thats worth more than a million dollars per season or multiple years probably has different answers for teams that arent trying to reach the salary floor. After missing the entire 2012-2013 season, Willie Mitchell had a nice comeback season, playing more than 20 minutes a night, a crucial part of the Kings second Stanley Cup win in the past three seasons. Hes 37, so not the fleetest afoot, but Mitchell has size, strength and adds a shot of reliability to the Panthers defence. In Mitchell and Brian Campbell (at least for now), the Panthers have a couple veterans that could show the way for first overall draft pick Aaron Ekblad and Mitchell, while a decent addition gets a nice payday -- two years, $8.5-million -- to eat some minutes on the Panthers blueline. Backup goaltender Al Montoya is a 29-year-old who posted a .920 save percentage in 28 games with the Jets last season. Trouble is, in the prevous two seasons, his save percentage was .894, so its not really reasonable to expect more than Montoyas career average which is .910. Adding Montoya would figure to mark the end of Dan Ellis time in Florida, though it may be difficult to find a taker for a 34-year-old coming off the worst season of his career. The Florida Panthers spent big money in the summer of 2011, overpaying a bunch of veterans in order to reach the salary floor, and this year has a similar feel to it. The issue for the Panthers is that they are a franchise that has reached the postseason once in the past 13 years; they dont need to overpay free agents as much as they need to build a stable base of talent. With all the money the Panthers spent on July 1, theres not much reason to believe any of those players are going to be long-term answers. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. Marcus Murphy Jersey .Y. -- Dallas Stars coach Lindy Ruff had an opportunity to experience an entire range of emotions in his first trip back to Buffalo to face his former team. Chris Ivory Jersey . It took five games, but the Celtics finally helped Stevens earn his first NBA victory. "Im going to celebrate for a whole 12 minutes, and then Im going to start watching Orlando and trying to figure them out," the first-year Celtics coach said after Boston beat the Utah Jazz, one of the leagues other winless teams, 97-87 on Wednesday night. http://www.cheapbillsjerseysonline.com/?tag=trent-murphy-jersey-online . He was set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 5th. The 34-year-old Laval, Que. native has played six seasons with the Penguins.SWANSEA, Wales - Swansea scored twice in less than three minutes to rally to a 2-1 victory over Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday, with substitute Bafetimbi Gomis grabbing the winner barely 90 seconds after coming on.A listless game played in driving rain in south Wales was sparked into life by Alexis Sanchezs close-range finish in the 63rd minute, the Chile forward scoring for the fourth straight league game.Gylfi Sigurdsson curled home a stunning free kick to equalize for Swansea in the 75th and Gomis completed the hosts recovery by rising high to head home a pin-point cross from Jefferson Montero, who exploited the right side of Arsenals fragile defence all game.The defeat ended a miserable week for Arsenal, which surrendered a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3 against Anderlecht in the Champions League on Tuesday.Its difficult to explain how we lost the lead, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. We were in control. We lost some decisive challenges in the middle of the park in the last 20 minutes.When we were 1-0, we lacked some spark and killer instinct.With its brittle defence and an increasing reliance on Sanchezzs goals, Arsenal looks to have little hope of catching unbeaten leader Chelsea, which is 12 points ahead of its London rival after just 11 games. Adolphus Washington Jersey. Sixth-placed Arsenal hasnt beaten a side outside the bottom seven this season.Sanchez steered home a finish from eight meters at the end of a sweeping counter-attack in the 63rd minute, extending his prolific form that has seen him score six goals in his last four games in all competitions. He now has 12 goals overall in his first season with Arsenal.Swansea came fighting back and Arsenal could not deal with the hosts intensity.Sigurdsson, Swanseas best player this season, whipped a free kick over the wall and beyond goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, at which point manager Garry Monk threw on Gomis.One of the strikers first touches was to rise above Nacho Monreal — a left back playing in central defence — and meet Monteros cross with a header that found the bottom corner.We talked about belief before the game, about how good we have been and how good we can be, Monk said. We showed our character.Swansea moved fifth with 18 points from 11 games. 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