Calgary gets Jay Bouwmeester's Rights

With only a handful of days remaining until the July 1 free agency frenzy begins the Florida Panthers have finally waved the white flag on attempting to sign their unrestricted free agent defenceman Jay Bouwmeester. This former 2002 first round Panthers pick who at 25 years old is just entering his prime is known for his smooth skating and big shot which played a huge part in this Alberta native coming off a 42 point campaign. Last season the Panthers on several occasions attempted to sign their stud defeneman but couldn’t get his name on a contract extension. At the trade deadline there were multiple trade rumors involving Bouwmeester but at the end of the day Florida who at the time were fighting tooth and nail for a playoff spot decided to hang onto him and not give up in trying to sign him. On Saturday morning the Panthers finally ended the Bouwmeester era when they traded his rights to the Calgary Flames for Calgary’s third round pick (used to select Josh Birkholz) and the rights to negotiate with defenseman Jordan Leopold who like Bouwmeester is an unrestricted free agent. What this all means is that Florida has exclusive rights to try and sign Leopold and Calgary has exclusive rights to try and sign Bouwmeester until July 1 when at that time other teams can start negotiating to sign them. Bouwmeester who was voted the Canadian Major Junior-Top Draft Prospect in 2002 has shown flashes of elite play in his young career. Besides for playing in two All- Star Games (2006/07 and 2008/09) another big accomplishment was in 2007 when he registered a career best +23. If Calgary can sign him they will have a pretty lethal duo on the blue line with Bouwmeester and hard- hitting Dion Phaneuf. Meanwhile Leopold who is a little older at 28 can provide veteran leadership if he signs with Florida. He has played 355 NHL games and has 29 goals and 80 assists in his career along with a minus 15 rating.