Rangers Dump Wolski on Panthers

			2011/2012 Stats				2012	July 1st Details
To Florida	Pos	Age	GP	G	A	P	Cap Hit	Years	Cap Hit
Wojtek Wolski	F	26	9	0	3	3	$3.8m	0	RFA
-----------------------
To New York	Pos	Age	GP	G	A	P	Cap Hit	Years	Cap Hit
Mike Vernace	D	25	0	0	0	0	$525k	0	RFA
2013 3rd Round Draft Pick

The Florida Panthers have relieved the New York Rangers of some valuable cap space on Saturday afternoon, acquiring forward Wojtek Wolski in a deal that sees a prospect and a pick going the other way.

Wolski has missed the bulk of the 2012 season, due to groin problems on two occasions, which have accounted for 31 games on the shelf and the rest of the games missed have been either due to his conditioning assignment or being a healthy scratch.  As a scratch Wolski was becoming very costly to the Rangers, taking up a fair cap hit in order to not play.

The Panthers get a fairly talented player in this deal, but the questions about his consistency are not only pressing, but rather scary.  To Florida's credit, they have taken a few players that have a reputation of being inconsistent and made an okay team out of them, so there could be some method to this madness.  Wolski did crack the top 100 in pool scoring in the 2010 season with 65 points in 80 games, so there is some real potential there still, especially at age 26.

The Rangers, on the other hand, got a little bit more depth on defense for this season, plus a mid-round pick, which is a good price for a salary dump, in my opinion.  This deal is certainly one that will lead to more over the trade deadline weekend.

Wolski was dropped earlier this season by Dale C. in the draft after being such an early-season disappointment, but he still is available to those with trades left on their sheet team, sitting in Box 24.  The Panthers have worked some magic and Wolski could very well jump into this roster with both skates gliding, but I'm not sure that he is the right guy to pick-up right now.