Panthers Remember They Still Have More Money To Spend, Ink Bergenheim

Florida Panthers general manager Dale Tallon was going to call it a night. But then he remembers, "Hey! I still have to spend some more money!" He looked at who was available, figured a deal with left wing and Tampa Bay Lightning postseason standout Sean Bergenheim wouldn't take too long to hammer out (15 minutes to be exact) and pulled the trigger on his sixth free agent signing - seventh overall transaction - of the day. That salary floor is getting nearer and nearer.

Thanks largely to a playoff performance for the Lightning that included nine goals and 11 points in 16 games en route to an Eastern Conference Finals appearance, Bergenheim received a payday from the other Florida team at a rate of $2.75 million per season over the course of four years.

Now, Bergenheim is basically a 20-30 point regular season contributor and has no real playoff success to his record prior to last year. But when teams have money to just throw around, and Joel Ward just inked a $3 million per year deal with the Washington Capitals for essentially pulling off a similar postseason uptick in performance, financial gain tends to follow.

For all this insane spending on Day 1 of free agency, I do wonder if Tallon is really just spending money to reach the cap floor or if he genuinely has any kind of clue about how all of the new pieces are actually going to come together as a team. There is still no actual superstar in their organization - just a bunch of compliment pieces.