LIVE! Draft Day II: JAY BOUWMEESTER Traded to Calgary; Jordan Leopold and Third Round Pick to FLA ... Drew Shore Picked 44th ... Josh Birkholz 67th

Jay Bouwmeester is gone to Calgary as defenseman Jordan Leopold comes to Florida along with the Flames third round pick.

Not too bad I suppose because basically it's a third round pick. Leopold is, like Jay, a free agent come July 1.

Now it's up to the Panthers to sign him, which I assume they want to do. So now Florida has the 44th pick in the second round and the 67th in the third.

We'll see what happens from here.

Word from Randy Sexton sometime after Florida's third round pick...

-- Leopold started last season in Colorado and ended up in Calgary. In 83 games (hey, I thought they only played 82 in the NHL?), he scored seven goals with 17 assists. Last season he made $1.5 million, so if he wants to play in Florida, the money is there for him.

-- Jay Bouwmeester, a native of Edmonton, Alberta, spent the past seven seasons with the Panthers after Florida made him the third overall selection of the 2002 draft. Bouwmeester was a two-time All-Star and a member of the Canadian Olympic team in 2006.

Bouwmeester played in all 82 games for the Panthers in each of the past four seasons.

-- With their second round pick, the Panthers took US center Drew Shore. A member of the US developmental team, Shore was ranked 28th among North American skaters.

-- With Calgary's pick, Florida takes winger Josh Birkholz who will attend the University of Mi nesota next year. Birkholz becomes the third American to join the Florida organization in the past hour or so, joining Leopold and Shore.

U-S-A...

--The Panthers have made some deals and picked up two more picks. Here's what we got today: A lot of Americans and a lot of forwards.

C DREW SHORE

How acquired: Second round pick, 44^th overall

Age, hometown: 18; Denver

The skinny: A good playmaking center, Shore had 32 assists in 62 games with the United States Developmental Program team last season, scoring 17 points in 17 international games. Shore will attend the University of Denver in his hometown next season.

LW JOSH BIRKHOLZ

How acquired: Third round pick, 67^th overall

Age, hometown: 18; St. Louis Park, Minn.

The skinny: A speedy skater, Birkholz scored 21 goals with 15 assists in 55 games with the Fargo Force of the USHL last season. Birkholz will stay close to home and attend the University of Minnesota next season.

LW GARRETT WILSON

How acquired: Fourth round pick, 107^th overall

Age, hometown: 18; Barrie, Canada

The skinny: Wilson has good size and is said to have a good nose for the net. Wilson played 53 games for the Owen Sound Attack in 2008-09, scoring 17 goals with 18 assists winning his team's award for leadership and perseverance.

C CORBAN KNIGHT

How acquired: Fourth round pick, 135^th overall

Age, hometown: 18; Oliver, British Columbia

The skinny: Knight led all rookies and finished eighth in the Alberta Junior Hockey League with 72 points (34-38-72) in 61 games. He also finished tied for third in playoff goals (10). Knight will play at the University of North Dakota in the 2010-11 season.

C WADE MEGAN

How acquired: Fifth round pick, 138^th overall

Age, hometown: 17; Canton, N.Y.

The skinny: An obvious prospect, Megan played high school hockey the past two seasons at the
South Kent School in Connecticut. He scored 27 goals in 32 games last season.

C SCOTT TIMMINS

How acquired: Sixth round pick, 165^th overall

Age, hometown: 19; Hamilton, Ontario

The skinny: A former player of coach Pete DeBoer with the Kitchener Rangers, Timmins split last season with the Rangers and Windsor, scoring 35 goals. Timmins is eligible to play in the Panthers' minor league system next season.

Comments

[Stephen]

I think this is a great job by us. Hopefully we can sign leopold.

[Mark]

Pretty good move by Randy Sexton, given that the apparent market yesterday was a third round pick (without getting Leopold's negotiating rights thrown in). Would have been nice to have acquired Mike Camilleri's negotiating rights instead, but decent value nevertheless, under the circumstances.

[jimmy]

thanks GR for the good news this morning

[Happy Girl]

bye Jay - good luck in Calgary

[Steven Wise]

I hope we can sign Leopold. One upside to the negotiations is that at least they don't have the same agent. That should make the negotiations a lot easier....I hope!

[NomoreBouw!]

We got something for Bouw, that's excellent. Although, they still need a scorer.

[Holy Jokinen]

According to NHL.com, george, the Birkholz pick is from phx. Which is why it was the 6th pick in the 3rd round.

The calgary pick is later.

[jimmy]

does any one out there have the same feeling that we might not pick up a sniper this year? we need some who can find the back of the net

[Big Slap Shot Bob]

Awesome! I was so hoping for Leopold! I used to watch him and Ballard at Minnesota when I went to University of Denver. That could be a GREAT pairing along with McCabe-Allen. Still a very solid top 4. He's no Bouwmeester, but he's way more affordable and the offensive defenseman we wanted to replace Jay.

Hey, and a 3rd rounder - nice work by Sexton. It looked like we weren't going to get anything for a while there.

[Rene]

Holy: the pick came to Calgary from Phoenix in their Jokinen trade and then they sent it to us.

[Clash]

Something for nothing, but if Calgary gets Bouw signed and he's allowed to play the way he wants without the spotlight being solely on him, that's a defense that will be scary with Phanuef, Regehr, and now Bouw all together. If they can muster some offense and with Sutter coaching to improve on the failed Keenan experiment (Why do people still buy the two decade old hype?), Calgary should be a scary team next season. Couver better resign the Sedins, and find some secondary talent to support them up front.

[Brian from CT]

Panthers are now a 70-80 point team. At least we got something for him, wasn't much but at least he didn't walk for free.

That money better go to a top line winger via FA.

[Big Slap Shot Bob]

I don't think we're signing anyone else in FA, at least no one that is top 2 line caliber. If we sign Leo and extend Booth, there's your Bo money plus or minus. I also doubt we sign Skrastins if we sign Leo - we'll likely let guys compete for the 6th spot behind McCabe, Allen, Ballard, Leo, & Eminger.

If Olesz can stay health and play like the talented winger he is then we may not need much else anyway. Sure, I'd have loved to have a guy like Cammellari, but the Panthers are never going to have a 6 million dollar forward signed via FA. They are going to build through the draft and like what Martin did, sign guys to long term deals early in the hopes of having our top guys at cap friendly deals (league cap or self-imposed cap).

I know it's not what we want ideally for a lineup but it's going to have to work through good coaching and hard play:

2A: Booth-Weiss-Horton
2B: Stillman-Rhino-Frolik
Olesz-Kreps-?Dvo?
Campbell-Maclean-?Stewart?

McCabe-Allen
Ballard-Leo
Eminger-?Skrastins?

? for unknown replacements but I think Repik could very well win either Dvo or Stewart's roster spot and one of Garrison, Ellerby could win Skrastins spot. I would really feel better about Skrastins playing alongside Eminger tho.

[AC]

I don't think Eminger is a lock over Skrastins. He didn't play very well when he came over and Skrastins played very well all season against top lines with Bo and blocked shots like I've never seen.

I believe Eminger will get a shot to prove himself, but the third D line is a question.

I also don't think Stewart is in the line up this year unless he has an incredible camp like last year. I also believe Maclean could be replaced.

[MP]

Garrett Wilson was a good pick. I feel he dropped quited a bit because of all the time he missed serving his BS suspension.

[Bo]

Word is Kulikov could make the team.

The defense could be:

Ballard/Allen
Leopold/Skrastins(Must sign both)
McCabe/Kulikov
Eminger will be the extra if they resign him.

Stewart won't make the team. Tarnsaky will make the roster over Stewart.

[panfan]

can we just say stewart is another failed experiment. He should have never made the team last year.

[NomoreBouw!]

I agree, Stewart is gone. Eminger will stay. I think it would be a mistake not to sign skrastins. He picked up the slack when Bou did not.

[j]

Please no Eminger in the lineup. Don't we all remember that we had to take him back out 4 games later and make him a healthy scratch?

[Agraves]

Eminger was a disaster, a coverup for management's boynton fiasco.Pls sign skrastins.

[Karl]

Eminger didn't look so hot last year, but keep in mind he only got 9 games in for the Cats, which was his 3rd team that season. It takes time to adjust for anyone. Give him a full pre-season camp to get ready and a month of the season, then we should get an accurate picture of what he can or cannot bring. He has the talent.

McCabe-Allen-Ballard-Leopold-Skras-Emmy is not a bad top 6 at all. Throw in Ellerby\Garrison\Kulikov getting a shot, Bo shouldn't be missed too much...

[Eric]

Great news! (for a change)

Thanks for all of your reporting, GR!!!

[Clash]

Eminger couldn't keep a roster spot on an injury riddled and worst defensive (even when healthy) team in the league.

[Brian from CT]

Ballard/McCabe
Allen/Skrastins
Leopold/Kulikov
Eminger < stinks

Booth-Weiss-Horton <2nd line at best
Stillman-Reinprecht-Frolik
Repik-Campbell-Olesz
Kreps-Matthias-Dvo

Horrible offense. Olesz is never going to become what they thought he would be. Huge bust in my opinion.