And We Are Off: Jordan Leopold to Penguins for 2nd Round Pick

The Panthers came off the break with a trade, sending pending UFA defenseman Jordan Leopold to the Penguins for a second round pick in the upcoming draft.

Good trade for the Panthers future in my opinion, but once again shows management is waving the white flag while coaches and players try to make a run at this playoff thing.

Spoke to GM Randy Sexton about the move and he basically said it's hard for the program to not look forward into the future and move some things around. Sexton is not done; he's skipping the trip to Atlanta and I would think more trades could come down before Tuesday night's game at Philips Arena.

Sexton said Leopold thanked him for giving him a chance in Florida and I think he's thankful to be heading to Pittsburgh -- a place he has a realistic chance to win a Cup.

Will have quotes from Randy as well as Pittsburgh GM Ray Shero and Leopold coming soon.

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Comments

[FLA Kittens]

A steal, except the Panthers will lose some d offensive power.

[Big Slap Shot Bob]

A steal only if they draft someone decent, otherwise it means Bouwmeester for a 2nd and 3rd round pick (Birkholtz). Yikes!

[Canada Cats Fan]

think we could get a bag of pucks for Kreps?

[Resume]

Wow still nothing big ! Alot of talk from sexton and no big names yet doesn't suprise me

[hank]

Don't matter what draft picks we get if the same people are making theose choices at the draft table. Check out this from therattrick
Players drafted behind Weiss that year, Mike Komisarek and Dan Hamhuis, both defenseman. Also, Ales Hemsky a skilled forward. In 2003 we drafted Nathan Horton. Want to see some of the names that went after him? Dion Phanuef, Jeff Carter, Ryan Getzlaf, Zach Parise, and Brent Seabrook. In 2004 the year we took Olesz, we passed on Travis Zajack and Mike Green. And finally in 2002 the year we traded down with Columbus so they could pick Rick Nash, and we ended up with Jay Bouwmeester. Bet we’d like to do that over again huh? And that is just this past decade. Remeber 1995? We took Radek Dvorak tenth. Now Radek is a nice player, but guess who was taken 11th? Jarome Iginla! Enough said.

[Brian From CT Move em here!]

Whats the point of getting a 2nd rounder for him???? makes no sense and Sexton lied yesterday saying there will be no firesale.

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

look at what he just did! getting rid of one of our top 4 dmen for a pick says we are rebuilding once again.

FLORIDA HOCKEY IS A JOKE.

[season ticket holder since day one]

Hank you forget that we traded down to get Horton, we could of had Staal as well. You also left out Richards.

Getting a 2nd round pick for this organization means giving up something for nothing again. Lets just keep giving away players and save money for the rest of the year.

The only second round pick of the panthers that the panthers have on their roster is Booth.

Please bring in someone that knows what they are doing.

[EJ]

Bring up Keaton Ellerby?

[Bill]

Oh, PLEASE take Ellerby. He's been nothing short of an ECHL d-man in past month. Giveaways, soft play and stupid decisions should fit right in what you're doing up there.

[Embarrassed Panther Fan]

true. Our prospects stink. Repik Matthias McArdle all suck. Our best dman isnt even in the AHL. Robak will be out #1 guy in a few years along with Kulikov. I bet one is traded by then anyway so theres no sense of getting excited. I thought we were building this team around Luongo/Jokinen/Bouwmeester ummmmm i guess not.

[slapshot1106]

Keep selling. They've got a long way to go... Too bad the only other guy that will go will be Seidenberg and maybe Dvorak... I doubt there's much interest in the rest...

One promising note is that we do have a better track record of drafting in the 2nd round than the 1st, so maybe the sky isn't falling after all... Sad but true.

[Clash]

Panthersfan' revisionist history is hysterical, but no need to go correcting people.

It hasn't been the scouting department's fault for drafting guys like Horton and Stewart. That was Keenan. The Weiss pick wasn't this scouting staff's pick. That was the guys working here under Murray and Fletcher. Mind you Weiss shut down Spezza in the OHL playoffs prior to that draft, which drew comparisons to Yzerman. Olesz was considered a steal at his draft position, as he was supposed to be a top three pick prior to being leveled by Phanuef in the World Juniors (Mind you, he's part of the reason I got banned from HF boards for sayin he'd be a career third liner).

A lot of that development problems stem from the people who were running the organization at the time, namely Keenan and Cohen. No farm system, and what there was, was left in the hands of others.

And then there is the other problem. The Pantherfans. They just don't have a clue. They're reactionary without knowing the root cause. Guys like Weiss and Horton could still be great players in this league and for this team, if there was smart ownership and dedicated management of this team. They haven't had that since Dudley got fired. As much as people criticize him, he was dedicated at tryin to improve this team. Not just issue PR statements to keep fans buying tickets.