Florida Panthers sign LW Cory Stillman

Stillman is the kind of player this club can desperately use. With two Stanley Cups under his belt he knows what it takes to compete hard and hopefully some of that intensity will rub-off on our current roster. I look at Stillman as the kind of player Stumpel was intended to be, Decent scorer, role model and leader on the ice. Obviously Stumpel dropped the ball on that so hopefull Stillman can make an impression. Without bonafide big goal scorers, this team will definitely not win on offensive talent so they better learn quickly how to do it through chemistry and hard work much like the '96 Panthers did.

Excellent move by JM...This guy scores and I m sure will be the 1st on the ice for practice and the last to leave at the conclusion..get the picture?

More than doubled his salary from last year. No doubt he's a great add, but thats a big increase for 34 year old player. I hope he still has the fire.

Great move...today is a great example why you build through the draft. Did you see what some of these teams were paying for these players. This was the most reasonable of any contract, yet still probably overpaid slightly. Now I can see why JM is taking the approach he's taking. Of course, it would be nice to have an owner with deep pockets and spend without thinking like Tampa or NYR, but ask me if I had Bou at 7 or Redden at 6.5, ha! Even Campbell at 7. Yesterday was craziness and if you're not smart, you can hurt your team for the long haul. I guess that doesn't hold much weight when you've been out for 8 years, I understand that.

That being said, two things...you can also hurt your team by not developing top talent (see Horton, Weiss, etc). And I would certainly like them to make an aggressive on Hossa or Sundin, even though Sundin would be out of the question at 10m/year. but I think they anticipate their next big signing to be Bou, so they don't want to put up big money on a top forward. Probably won't happen, which brings me back to making sure you develop your young talent, which I think JM wants to do with not bringing up Matthias and Frolik too quick.

I hope Stillman can deliver, especially being the role model for the younger players. This team does have a lot of potential. But then again the definition of potential means "you ain't worth a damn right now".

Totally excited by this move. Every time Carolina would whoop us, Stillman was a big reason why. So good to now have him on our side.

Stillman wearing the "C" maybe????????

Glad to see all of the positivity today - MN Hockey Guy right on with the draft point..... too many signees yesterday were overpaid. Sorry, but Campbell and redden not worth what they got - and Vancouver dangling 10 mil in front of Sundin?

Typical player who wants to take it easy-will be almost invisible during the season.

1.His age=34 2.Has already 2 Stanley rings 3.Has all the info needed from the assistant coach about how to play with no effort
and get away with it with JM.

Deduction number 2: Red Baron here is happy !!!???????He who hates already anything Cohen related....need more clues ? Grotesque !!!

But most important and obvious clue from all : Florida was
the only destination on HIS LIST...

Typical player who wants to take it easy-will be almost invisible during the season.

1.His age=34 2.Has already 2 Stanley rings 3.Has all the info needed from the assistant coach about how to play with no effort
and get away with it with JM. team on HIS LIST....

(This was good post I saw on another board)

Martin's comments tell you what a defensive coach/GM he is.

Most GMs would get excited with a 30 to 40 goal scorer, Martin gets excited for a 20 goal scorer as his goal is to win every game 1-0.

I do like Stillman's leadership ability, however, we had Roberts and Nieuwendyk who are great leaders and they could not lead us to the promise land.

I am interested to see where Nieuwendyk lands; I still feel he left for the same reasons that Luongo wanted out of here and Bouwmeester wants out of here and that is a lack of commitment to winning.

While we have a surplus of d-men, three of them are in the last year of their contract and could be gone so Martin's hands are tied until he signs at least two of the three (Boumeester, Boyton and Ballard)

Too bad Martin has not figured out that without the sniper up front, teams will continue to force Horton to the outside where he is more than willing to stand and wait for the puck.

We need a player that is willing to crowd the net and cause disruptions in the offensive zone, without that we will continue to be one of the lowest scoring teams in the league.

You guys should look past day one of FA.Forget about Hossa, he will be highly over paid by some team. Kilger is a good fit if he plays, if not we could get Bertuzzi back as a net crasher or Huesallias could provide the scoring we need. As for Stillmans age how many quality players are there in this new NHL that are at or over 40? I'm starting to get excited to see the Panthers in the playoffs this year.Jacque Martin is a good team builder and our new coach will not let a player be a slacker.Go CATS

Good signing put him with Shawn Matthias and Zednik and you have a nice line. Matthias in the few games here seemed to get in the goaltender's face, Zednik works the boards. Stillman is good for a young Matthias, show him his rings and what it takes to win one. Good common sense signing...Nice that the Sun-Sentinel finally decided to put up the news of Stillman signing, even though all the readers already knew. Good thing with the internet we are not stuck waiting for the Sun-Sentinel for our news. This paper is really slow.

Ken wrote:

You guys should look past day one of FA.Forget about Hossa, he will be highly over paid by some team. Kilger is a good fit if he plays, if not we could get Bertuzzi back as a net crasher or Huesallias could provide the scoring we need. As for Stillmans age how many quality players are there in this new NHL that are at or over 40? I'm starting to get excited to see the Panthers in the playoffs this year.Jacque Martin is a good team builder and our new coach will not let a player be a slacker.Go CATS

I don't want that Bertuzzi piece of garbage anywhere near this team. He doesn't want to play here. Period. Fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, shame on me.

MN Hockey Guy wrote:

Great move...today is a great example why you build through the draft. Did you see what some of these teams were paying for these players. This was the most reasonable of any contract, yet still probably overpaid slightly. Now I can see why JM is taking the approach he's taking. Of course, it would be nice to have an owner with deep pockets and spend without thinking like Tampa or NYR, but ask me if I had Bou at 7 or Redden at 6.5, ha! Even Campbell at 7. Yesterday was craziness and if you're not smart, you can hurt your team for the long haul. I guess that doesn't hold much weight when you've been out for 8 years, I understand that.
That being said, two things...you can also hurt your team by not developing top talent (see Horton, Weiss, etc). And I would certainly like them to make an aggressive on Hossa or Sundin, even though Sundin would be out of the question at 10m/year. but I think they anticipate their next big signing to be Bou, so they don't want to put up big money on a top forward. Probably won't happen, which brings me back to making sure you develop your young talent, which I think JM wants to do with not bringing up Matthias and Frolik too quick.

You are right, a lot of crazy money was spent yesterday but that happens every July 1st. Stillman was signed to a sensible correct as were a couple of other players. I would've liked to see the Panthers grab one more forward at a good price but I guess they think they are set now.

Yes, JM is trying to do the right thing by locking up his young core players to long term deals. Unfortunately the jury is still out on whether these guys are the right core guys. So far they have all underachieved a bit in my opinion.

Hopefully DeBoer is the right coach and will get Horton, Weiss and Olesz to raise their games and take over this team or we are to going to see a lot of cut and paste with free agents the next couple of years.

UpNorth wrote:

<quoted text>
I don't want that Bertuzzi piece of garbage anywhere near this team. He doesn't want to play here. Period. Fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, shame on me.

I wouldn't call Bertuzzi a piece of garbage but I don't want him back here either. To me he is a good third liner on a contender not a player the Panthers need.

Good signing! I'm somewhat amazed JM had him in his sights! Good for him and us! Stillman was a Panther killer, maybe now he'll be a Panther helper. He's 34 in amazing shape, smart player, get's his nose dirty. We're going to be tougher to play against. I don't know how it will translate into points or wins, but I know he's a good one and he's a definate plus on many levels, shades of '96??

MN Hockey Guy wrote:

Great move...today is a great example why you build through the draft. Did you see what some of these teams were paying for these players. This was the most reasonable of any contract, yet still probably overpaid slightly. Now I can see why JM is taking the approach he's taking. Of course, it would be nice to have an owner with deep pockets and spend without thinking like Tampa or NYR, but ask me if I had Bou at 7 or Redden at 6.5, ha! Even Campbell at 7. Yesterday was craziness and if you're not smart, you can hurt your team for the long haul. I guess that doesn't hold much weight when you've been out for 8 years, I understand that.
That being said, two things...you can also hurt your team by not developing top talent (see Horton, Weiss, etc). And I would certainly like them to make an aggressive on Hossa or Sundin, even though Sundin would be out of the question at 10m/year. but I think they anticipate their next big signing to be Bou, so they don't want to put up big money on a top forward. Probably won't happen, which brings me back to making sure you develop your young talent, which I think JM wants to do with not bringing up Matthias and Frolik too quick.

There is a reason those players make the money they do:

They are clutch franchise players who can individually change the tide of a single game. Last year I watched Toronto, riding on the back of Mats Sundin, come back to beat the Devils in OT.

They are also role models and locker room leaders.(Something this team desperately needs!)

Finally, bottom line, they sell tickets...

If you are a casual fan and have a choice to watch to watch a team with Cory Stillman as their leading scorer, or Joe Thornton, you will choose JT.

You see, it's all about a little business formula called ROI- Return on Investment. Obviously, Jacques-strp, Yorskidmark, and Cohen the Carpetbagger skipped class during this lecture.

Stillman is a good, sorely needed acquisition. But, for this Organization's sake, there better be more offense coming to this team!

From MH wrote:

(This was good post I saw on another board)
Martin's comments tell you what a defensive coach/GM he is.
Most GMs would get excited with a 30 to 40 goal scorer, Martin gets excited for a 20 goal scorer as his goal is to win every game 1-0.
I do like Stillman's leadership ability, however, we had Roberts and Nieuwendyk who are great leaders and they could not lead us to the promise land.
I am interested to see where Nieuwendyk lands; I still feel he left for the same reasons that Luongo wanted out of here and Bouwmeester wants out of here and that is a lack of commitment to winning.
While we have a surplus of d-men, three of them are in the last year of their contract and could be gone so Martin's hands are tied until he signs at least two of the three (Boumeester, Boyton and Ballard)
Too bad Martin has not figured out that without the sniper up front, teams will continue to force Horton to the outside where he is more than willing to stand and wait for the puck.
We need a player that is willing to crowd the net and cause disruptions in the offensive zone, without that we will continue to be one of the lowest scoring teams in the league.

Nieuwendyk retired.

SHolmes wrote:

But most important and obvious clue from all : Florida was
the only destination on HIS LIST...
Typical player who wants to take it easy-will be almost invisible during the season.
1.His age=34 2.Has already 2 Stanley rings 3.Has all the info needed from the assistant coach about how to play with no effort
and get away with it with JM. team on HIS LIST....

Stillman is older, but not as old as when Roberts came down here. Stillman has many of the same qualities as the boys that comprised the 1996 Panthers. And in my opinion, getting back to that kind of a team is exactly what the 2008 Panthers need most. Last year's team didn't work hard in the corners. Stillman will help change that mentality and bring more effort each night. He works for his goals. And he'll do a great job (hopefully) of showing the younger kids how to work for their goals as well.