Florida Panthers: Buying out Jussi Jokinen was the right move

The Florida Panthers opened up their training camp this Friday with new players, coaches and mindset. While some players returned, Jussi Jokinen was not one of them. Was it smart for the Panthers to let him go?

After the Panthers horrid season last year, the Cats let everyone know that they were going to change this team. One by one, changes continued to be made by the front office. After re-shaping their front office and coaching staff, the Panthers’ organization put their attention towards their players. Who would they keep and who would they move on from?

As expansion draft day came, Panthers’ fans were horrified when they saw two of the best forwards on the offense basically given to the Vegas Golden Knights. Although fans were shocked by these two moves, they put their worries away and put their trust in Dale Tallon.

The day before free agency opened, the Panthers made yet another shocking move. They were putting steady and reliable Jussi Jokinen on waivers! It began to seem as if the Panthers were only making this move in order to save money and were looking to start another string of mediocre seasons. While money had some sort of factor in this decision, Florida based this decision off of many other reasons. Let’s take a look at why this was a smart move.

One of the main reasons why Jokinen was cut from the team was simply because his play was getting worse (declining). In his first two seasons with the Panthers, Jokinen actually put up some really good numbers. He tallied a combination of 104 points over 162 games and was key on the power play and penalty kill. Instead of getting better in his 3rd year, Jokinen’s play regressed (injuries and inconsistency). He still put up 28 points over 69 games, but when he played, he looked slow and old. Even Jagr at his old age sometimes seemed faster than Jokinen.

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The Panthers also could no longer rely on Jokinen as their two-way forward. His plus/minus dropped to -15 from being a +25 the previous year. Some of this can be blamed on the Panthers’ poor play throughout the year, but to have that big of a drop off means that Jussi’s game reached a whole new low. Jokinen’s play was just not worth the 4 million dollars that he earned.

While the Panthers could have kept Jokinen on this year’s roster, he did not fit in with the new shape of the franchise. Last year, the Panthers decided to carry a mix of veterans and young players on their roster. Although some of the young players played with the same tenacity that led this team to their huge success in 2015-16, it was players like Jokinen that looked uninterested at points during the season. There would be multiple shifts throughout games where Jokinen just didn’t look himself and was found leisure skating at times. This is exactly what the Panthers wanted to avoid this year.

Looking at this year’s projected roster, there is not one player that will not play with the intensity and grit that the Panthers are looking for. This does not mean that Jokinen is no longer fit for the NHL, but rather that Jokinen is no longer fit for a Panthers’ roster spot. The Cats’ front office knew that Jokinen’s style of play no longer fit into the shape of the team, along with new direction (path).

Next: Florida Panthers release their 2017-18 training camp roster

At the end of the day, it was better for both the Panthers and Jokinen to move on from each other. The Panthers save cap space, while giving the roster spot to another player that fits their team. Jokinen on the other hand gets a fresh start with the dangerous and Stanley Cup contending Edmonton Oilers. When the Panthers face the Oilers this season, keep an eye on how Jokinen performs on a speedy and extremely talented Oilers team.

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