It's Benn a Busy Week.

It’s been a busy week for the Panthers GM, making four major trades including one of the biggest, yet most risky of his time as general manager of Florida. Even with the hot start, Dylan still felt necessary to make trades as he felt it would benefit the team better short and long term. Surprisingly all four deals were done with Western Conference teams.

 The first trade was the biggest, in which he sent prospects; Chris Kreider, Scott Glennie and Jonathon Merrill along with 2 picks, including their 1^st, to Dallas for young stud blue liner, Luke Schenn and young forward Tom Wandell and Jack Skille. Also coming to Florida was prospect Julien Melichiori and a pick.” This has definitely been the hardest trade we’ve made, not only did we trade our 1^st, but we traded three great young players that we drafted and had high hopes for.  But Luke brings a defining presence to our blueline and we feel we have the makings of a really scary defense for the future. We really didn’t have that shutdown guy in our system and it was too hard to pass on bringing a young guy with his caliber of play. Adding him with Del Zotto, Fowler and Pietrangelo for the future, we really like where it’s heading. We also got a guy that we really like in Skille, he has fallen off, but he is a former top pick and we still feel he has the ability to be a solid player for us. Trading guys like Kreider and Glennie was hard, both are immensely talented and when we drafted them we were fully confident in their abilities but we have guys in the system that we feel that can supplement them and soften the blow.”

 The next two deals saw them trade David Clarkson to Colorado for Brandon Yip and a pick, and also Carl Gunnarsson goes to Calgary along with a pick and a prospect for David Backes. “It was hard to trade a guy like Clarkson, as he just brings so much to the table. But to get a guy like Yip, who we value really highly, it was well worth it.  With getting Schenn and with the depth we have at the position, it wasn’t really hard to deal Gunnar and Ness, as we were dealing from a position of strength. We really like both, we drafted both and I really hate to trade guys we drafted but in the end like all the deals we’ve done recently, getting a guy like Backes who can just be a huge physical presence but can also rack in the points, just adds a great dynamic to this roster.”

The final deal in this past week saw the team shockingly deal Travis Zajac to Vancouver for Grabovski, Benn, and two picks. “Vancouver has been after us for Zajac since we acquired him back in August. Finaly the offer just became too good for us to pass on. We have Duchene already on the roster and Seguin will be up next year, so Zajac would have been expendable at the end of the year but we felt we were in a good position to do it now. Grabovski can really fill in nicely, he’s very talented, inconsistent but he can make plays and be a solid 50-60 point centre if everything runs well. Jamie Benn was really the key in this deal. He can score and he is really young and can be a very good part of our future here.  “

“We really feel that all these deals improve us now and in the future, and as we can already see this year, our building is almost finished and for the fans in Florida,and it’s about damn time.”