In an ideal world, Dale Tallon would like to keep Stephen Weiss in Florida.
Weiss, who had wrist surgery that could sideline him for the season earlier this month, is in the final year of his six-year deal and is scheduled to hit free agency after the season.
The Florida Panthers general manager said he has not received any trade offers for the injured forward and he plans to meet with Weiss’s camp this week in Florida to discuss his future with the club.
“No one has contacted us with regards to that and I haven’t made that offer to anybody either,” Tallon said on HOCKEY CENTRAL @ NOON Tuesday. “I’m meeting with Pat Morris (Weiss’s agent) Friday in Florida to discuss his future here with Stephen. Well have a better idea what’s happening. We have to look at everything that’s beneficial to our future. If it means signing Stephen, we’d do that … He had a really good year last year and he’d like to see that develop further.”
Weiss has played all of his 654 regular season games with the Panthers but has only made the post-season twice.
The 29-year-old was one of the Panthers’ most consistent players last season, but the wrist injury has limited his effectiveness in 2013.
He has just one goal and three assists in 17 games this year.
“I couldn’t tell you but I think it had to do with the wrist,” Tallon told Daren Millard, Nick Kypreos, and Doug MacLean.” He couldn’t perform like he wanted to. He had a really good year last year. I think the fact he couldn’t move his hand — he didn’t say anything until the very end but there was obviously something wrong there.”
With the Panthers in last place in the Eastern Conference, Tallon said other general managers are trying to pick his roster apart.
He is thrilled with his team’s core of prospects and young players and does not expect his team to make a major move at the upcoming trade deadline.
“They want our top players,” Tallon explained. “I got to ice a team for next year and we got a lot of great young players coming … We’re not going to just clean house. We did that two years ago. We still have really good core assets and just a matter of finding the right pieces.
“We got a lot of calls on some of our top players but I’m not going to just give them away. We’re healthy and we have an opportunity to compete. As we keep adding pieces the next couple of years, we’ll be a solid team. We wouldn’t do anything rash. We’re always looking long-term putting all the assets together. Not giving (Erik) Gudbranson, (Dmitri) Kulikov, (Jakub) Markstrom, (Jonathan) Huberdeau or (Drew) Shore or any of those kids. We’re going to build through the draft.”
The Panthers take on the Toronto Maple Leafs Tuesday night at the Air Canada Centre.
