A New Era Underway. Part One

As you know there has been a change in the ownership group with the Florida Panthers.  Maybe I should go away more often?  Maybe on my next trip out of town the Panthers can finally acquire that sniper I’ve been begging for, or at least get a legitimate number one center.

After just coming back from my birthday trip home to Chicago, which I will cover later or by tomorrow morning, I am quickly and briefly going to express my reserved opinion about the recent change in ownership.

It was news that was seemingly never going to get here as rumors were tossed around for weeks, however on Monday November 16th majority Owner Alan Cohen stepped down, and Cliff Viner and Stu Siegel took over as majority owners of the Florida Panthers.  I am told that this is good news.  At least by what I’m reading.  Time will only tell.

The Panthers who have been known to make blunder upon blunder, have been a laughing stock for quite some time now.  Is all of this a result of Alan Cohen and his fan approach to the team, rather than a business approach?  Cohen claims he has left the team in better shape than when he took over.  We’ll discuss that later.

New owners Viner and Seigel promise to make people accountable and have every intention of getting this team to the playoffs and to challenge for the Stanley Cup.  While they figure out how to do that and how quickly they plan to accomplish this task, I have a few questions of my own:

What is the first thing that you will do to show the team and the fans that things will be different?

You talk about accountability.  Our drafted players for the most part have not panned out.  Will there be changes in the scouting department?

When are we going to get a STAR player?  Talking with someone who used to go to Panther games the other day, I was asked, “Who’s the star player for them”?  I know that David Booth is the popular answer, but he’s not the right answer.

Alot of money has been spent on players that are not producing, or may have reached their maximum.  When will you decide that you’ve seen enough and tell General Manager Randy Sexton to make some moves?

Speaking of moves, is there any player(s) that are not untouchable?

Most importantly, will you direct Sexton to listen and consider every offer, should there be any?

Finally, when we don’t make the playoffs this year, will there be wholesale changes throughout the organEYEzation?

More to come later.  Especially my report on my trip to Chicago for Jeremy Roenick Heritage Night!

Thanks for reading.

Cheers