Panthers Keep Hurling Money, Some Lands In Fleischmann's Lap

It has to be fun spending somebody else's money. That's what Florida Panthers general manager Dave Tallon has been doing today with almost reckless reguard. He needs to hit the minimum salary of $48.3 million and dishing out some wealthy contracts to get that accomplished in almost record timing. He had already added Brian Campbell's monstrous contract before Friday. Then he added Jose Theodore, Scottie Upshall, Ed Jovanovski, Marcel Goc and Kris Versteeg between four signings and a trade to add some talent and a higher payroll to make the Panthers cap compliant. But Tallon had another move up his sleeve.

Perhaps an underrated center because of injury but no schlub in performance Tomas Fleischmann was able to snag some of the money being thrown around today by the Panthers as its latest addition. He joins the party for the next four years at the sum of $18 million.

Fleischmann split time last season between Washington and Colorado, putting up a total of 12 goals and 31 points in 45 games combined before missing the final 36 games of the season due to a chest injury. He did also miss 13 games in 2009-10, but was able to post 23 goals and 51 points.

Suiting up for at least 70 games and putting up the plus-20 goal campaign like two years ago would make this a reasonable investment for Florida - and a much cheaper option at center than what the big dog Brad Richards is going to command. Plus, Tallon continues to work the Panthers toward that salary floor.

It's an overpayment, but not the worst we've seen today. That may just be one of Tallon's other investments from today.