After trading Josh Brown to the Senators today, it appears as if the Panthers are looking to replace him with a soon-to-be-former Ottawa blueliner. Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch suggests that Florida may take a run at signing veteran defenseman Mark Borowiecki when the free agent market opens up next Friday.
The 31-year-old is coming off of his best offensive year after he picked up 18 points (5-13-18) in 53 games while also seeing his ice time climb to 17:56 per contest, the highest of his career. Of course, that’s not what prospective suitors will be counting on as instead, Borowiecki is known for his physicality and willingness to block shots, elements that many teams still look for on their bottom pairing.
For all of the talent they have on paper including Aaron Ekblad, Keith Yandle, and Anton Stralman, Florida’s back end has been an area of concern in recent years and the signing of Sergei Bobrovsky last summer didn’t help stop the bleeding. While Borowiecki wouldn’t play in their top four, he’d at least bring a bit of stability to the third pairing and while he’s likely to land a raise on the $1.2MM he made in each of the last two seasons, a deal for him wouldn’t be big enough to significantly impact their offseason spending plans.
I am surprised that they didn’t acquire his negotiation rights as part of the trade.