An excerpt from TSN:

The Florida Panthers agreed to terms on a one-year deal with defenceman Jay Bouwmeester on Monday.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Jay,” Panthers general manager Jacques Martin said in a statement. “He has played an important role on our team over the last five seasons, logging significant ice time while contributing at both ends of the ice.

“While we recognize that arbitration was an option, we were always confident we would reach a mutually acceptable contract with Jay. We look forward to his continued growth and future contributions to our organization.”

Bouwmeester, 24, played in Florida’s 82 games last year, ranking first among NHL defencemen in ice time (27 minutes, 28 seconds per game). He also recorded a career high 15 goals.

The six-foot-four, 215-pound defenceman has certainly been durable, having played in all 82 games for Florida the past three seasons.

Habster:

It will be interesting to see if the Panthers ownership give GM Jacques Martin the green light to sign Bouwmeester to a long term deal.

After Dion Phaneuf signed a 6 year/$39 million contract with the Flames, Bouwmeester’s agent, Bryon Baltimore called the contract interesting and hinted he would use Phaneuf’s contract as a guideline to negotiate with the Panthers,

“I can’t say we’ve really sat back waiting for anything specific like that to happen,” Baltimore told Sportsnet, “but it did give us some guidelines to where the elite big-minute defensemen are financially.”

If a long term deal can’t be struck between the two parties, then look for the Panthers to unload Bouwmeester at the trade deadline or even before, if the right deal comes up.

Another factor working against the Panthers is the fact that Bouwmeester is allegedly unhappy with the direction Panthers’ management is going with the team as of late……..stay tuned, folks!!