The purpose of signing Yandle was to replace Brian Campbell. Many of us were excited that for once, a top-tier free agent chose to sign with Florida. Firstly, the Panthers needed to trade for Yandle’s rights, which cost a 2016 6th round pick and a 2017 4th round (conditional) pick. Secondly, after trading for his rights, the team needed to negotiate and sign him to a deal.
After trading for his rights, it wouldn’t have made any sense if the Cats didn’t throw Yandle a legitimate offer. Of course, we ended up giving him a 7 year deal, with a cap hit of $6,350,000, for the next 7 seasons.