Ian McCoshen Signs Deal With Panthers

UPDATE 10:27 AM CST:  Jimmy Murphy of VICE Sports confirmed that McCoshen has reached a deal is on his way to Florida.  He adds that they are trying hard to re-sign Brian Campbell and bring him back to the Panthers.

10:11 AM CST: According to Joe Haggerty of CSNNE.com, the Florida Panthers are close to signing Boston College defenceman Ian McCoshen. There have been rumors of McCoshen making the jump to the NHL for a while now, after another strong season for the Eagles in which he put up 21 points in 40 games.  The 20-year old was drafted by the Panthers in 2013, but took his talents to the NCAA to play for the storied BC program.

If McCoshen does indeed make the jump, he’ll be a welcome addition to a back-end that is set to lose Brian Campbell to free agency and has already traded away Erik Gudbranson.  There is also the possibility that 39-year old captain Willie Mitchell calls it a career, which would leave quite the hole on Florida’s blue line. Currently they have Aaron Ekblad, Alex Petrovic, Jakub Kindle and Dimitry Kulikov penciled into their top four, but McCoshen’s left-handed shot and strong physical play would slot in well on the third pairing.

For Florida, it would be the first move of an offseason aimed at keeping their foothold on the top of the Atlantic division, where they won 47 games and tallied 103 points in what was a surprising season.