The Florida Panthers were struggling offensively early in the 2011-2012 season after being shutout in back to back games against the Washington Capitals and Buffalo Sabres. Dale Tallon was looking to shake up the roster, improve his team and potentially lose some dead weight.
Hear me out here before anyone gets angry–David Booth simply was not pulling his weight when it came to his salary. In six games he had registered a total of one point, an assist, and was sitting at a -6 when it came to plus-minus. Not only did Tallon trade someone who wasn’t performing and was a big defensive liability to his team, he did so and managed to shed salary from his payroll.
Sending Booth ($4.2mil) and Steven Reinprecht ($2.05mil) to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Mikael Samuelsson ($2.5mil) and Marco Sturm ($2.2mil), Tallon successfully dropped more than a million dollars off of his books. Why is that such a big deal?
Reinprecht was loaned to a European league the season before, and was playing with the Panthers’ AHL affiliate at the time of the trade, while still making $2 million. Vancouver received a third round pick they had previously traded to Florida in exchange for taking Reinprecht in the deal, while Samuelsson and Sturm more than made up for Booth’s missing offense on the roster. Tallon had accumulated enough picks in the previous two drafts that he could afford to give up an extra third round pick this season and save some money in the process.
Looking at the numbers after a full season, you would see that from a business standpoint, this move was a great one for Florida. Samuelsson and Booth’s numbers were near identical, but what Samuelsson did for the Panthers power play while manning the point was something Booth was never able to accomplish.
The Panthers shot up the power play rankings and finished the season seventh in the league, as well as scoring nine power play goals in seven games in the playoffs. Booth did improve his game defensively while in Vancouver, however, finishing with a -5 on the season. Not that impressive, you say? The season before in Florida, Booth led the league with a -31. Granted, Vancouver has a better offense which could have led to the improvement, but it’s still an improvement nonetheless.
So now July 1 has come and gone, Samuelsson has signed elsewhere and Sturm wasn’t given an offer. The Panthers now have more than $4 million extra to spend, but of course as you can see with no significant improvements made during free agency, you may wonder where the money will go. Jonathan Huberdeau’s entry level contract has him around a $3 million cap hit after bonuses and Dmitry Kulikov has yet to sign with the club and is still a restricted free agent. Provided Huberdeau can produce as we all expect him to, I’d say it’s a wash replacing Booth with him, at less money. Now say Kulikov is holding out for more money in free agency–the extra money off the books can easily be used to toss him a bone as well.
Let’s not forget the uncertainty of a new collective bargaining agreement being worked out before Sept. 15as well. If there happens to be a lockout, Huberdeau will play his final season in the QMJHL without burning a year on his ELC. This in turn will save Panthers ownership money while we lose a season, something the fans may not be too concerned about but still a positive for the team in the long run. So overall looking at the trade now compared to then, the Panthers definitely came out on top, trading for equal offensive numbers, more reliable defense and a financial break.
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Dumb Trade. Not pulling his weight? Its called a slow start. I suppose the Wings should have traded Zetterberg,Carolina Eric Staal, or how about Jerome Iginla EVERY YEAR? It will come back to haunt the Panthers no doubt. As it did this year in the playoffs, Guaranteed Booth would have scored in game 6 or 7. Panthers will not have enough offense next year as many players had career years. They are called career years for a reason, cause they only happen once! They lost a consistent 20+ goal scorer.