Fantasy Impact: The Florida Panthers have signed forward Carter Verhaeghe to a two-year deal worth $1M AAV, and defenseman Radko Gudas to a three-year deal worth $2.5M AAV.

The Panthers Get: A depth forward in Verhaeghe who can chip in some production with minimal ice time. They also get a hardnosed big hitter on defense in Gudas.

Fantasy Players Impacted: The organization felt that they weren't tough enough, with a weak defense. Since their highest paid player is their goaltender – they're going all in on protecting that asset. The addition of Patric Hornqvist (around two Hits per game the last two seasons) and Gudas (four-time 250-Hits guy), along with the subtraction of Mike Matheson to Pittsburgh (less than one Hit per game) tells us exactly what Florida's plans are. They are not going to be an easy team to play against – and I don't think they're through.

Verhaeghe was a productive player in the AHL and in junior hockey, but skating issues have always held him down from becoming a legit top six forward in the NHL. And while the Panthers took nice advantage of an underutilized player in Jonathan Marchessault a few years ago when Tampa let him walk – Verhaeghe doesn't have that same potential. He has the hands and the smarts, and occasionally could be slotted in on a scoring line in an emergency and could do well in spurts. But his speed will frustrate his coach and he won't be able to sustain such a roster spot. He is a replacement for Colton Sceviour (included in the Hornqvist for Matheson trade) in the roster.

The problem is, as you can see below, both of these players were deployed mostly against weaker opposition lines (they are on the bottom half of the chart). Neither player would be deployed against a scoring line in a defensive situation.