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The Florida Panthers have chosen to be optimistic and not worry about the future when it comes to the recent signing of their young number one defenceman Jay Bouwmeester.
Drafted third overall by Florida in the 2002 draft, this soft- spoken Alberta native, who show cased lots of potential during his tenure with Medicine Hat of the WHL, has shown steady improvement in his first five years with the Panthers.
Bouwmeester, who had a career high of 15 goals last season, and ranked among the leaders in ice time for defenceman (27 minutes and 28 seconds), agreed to only a one- year deal with Florida worth 4.875 million dollars.
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Jay,” Panthers GM Jacques Martin said about his 24 year-old. “He has played an important role on our team over the last five seasons, logging significant ice time while contributing at both ends of the ice.”
While it’s great news for Florida fans, there is some potential bad news and that’s the fact Bouwmeester, who played in all 82 regular season games over the past three years, expressed a desire to test the free agent market next summer.
The Panthers originally wanted to sign this six foot four, 215 pounder to a long term deal but instead settled on the one year deal and in the process avoided arbitration. “While we recognized that arbitration was an option, we were always confident that we would reach a mutually acceptable contract with Jay,” said Martin. “We look forward to his continued growth and future contributions to our organization.”
Expressing his desire to be an unrestricted free agent next summer, it’s hard to imagine that this emerging blue liner who has accumulated 161 points thus far in 389 professional games, will be wearing a Panthers sweater after next season’s trading deadline.
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