But today former Panthers' defenseman Cory Murphy signed a two-way contract with the Devils. Murphy started last season with the Panthers, then claimed by the Lightning on re-entry waivers in January.

Panthers' assistant general manager Randy Sexton just said through a team spokesman (4:20 p.m. Thursday) that reports the Panthers have signed Tanguay are 'false.' I've left a message for Tanguay's agent. Waiting to hear back.

So the Panthers' 2009-10 schedule will be a bit tougher.

I can only imagine what Panthers' players will think when they see it.

The work that started in October won't be completely done for another two to three weeks. There are still finishing touches left to make on the $10 million expansion which has increased the square footage of the facility from 75,000 to 125,000 and transformed an adequate practice facility into nothing less than a well-thought out sprawling playground for Panthers' players.

"This is going to be exactly what we wanted it to be -- a state-of-the art practice facilty that's one of the top two or three in the NHL," Incredible Ice vice president and general manager Jeff Campol told me as he gave me the tour. "It'll help the organization."

And undoubtedly interest in hockey in the area. When I pulled into the parking lot this morning -- that too has expanded, from about 125 paved spots to close to 500 -- I saw a bunch of kids playing a game of roller hockey outside. It's part of the goalie school going on at Incredible right now.

Inside, you don't immediately notice a difference. But when you walk into the lobby and make a right down a long hallway and go through the double doors, you enter a luxurious compound that I'm guessing will make Panthers players -- almost all of whom live nearby in Coral Springs and Parkland -- hang out there all day.

In this part of Incredible Ice built exclusively for the team, the Panthers will have their own sheet of ice -- the facility now has three in all. A row of seats is being put in all around the rink for fans to watch practice. The ice is brand new -- just three days old. And it boasts an all-electric Zamboni.

The expanded Panthers area has everything an NHL team could hope for and more -- a medical room attached to a room with two mini hydrotherapy plunge pools -- one hot, one cold; a 30-seat theater with stadium seating where the team can break down film; a large players' lounge with a built-in kitchen; a huge workshop for skate sharpening, sewing machines, etc.; a huge weight room with a sprint track down the middle; showers with a tile mosaic of the Panthers' logo on the wall; a decked out locker room with a dehumidification system built-in so the stink of equipment is easily sucked out of the room; separate offices for each assistant coach, as well as coach Pete DeBoer and the general manager.

Did I mention there's going to be a large screen TV pretty much everywhere?

And the area is very secure. You need a electronic swipe card to go anywhere.

Jeff Campol and the Panthers clearly put a lot of thought and planning into the expansion. Everything is easily accessible and there seems to be a room for everything.

Jeff said he visited six to eight NHL practice facilities for input into the Panthers' project. Dallas' was most impressive, he said, and that's where the Panthers got the idea for the dehumidification system instead of trying to solve the problem the old-school way by setting up huge fans on the ground.

I'm hoping to perhaps post a streaming video online of all the newly built areas once the final product is done and we get closer to the season.

PETE DEBOER

It looks pretty good considering the fact it's an Olympic break year and we've got a condensed time frame. We've got some significant time off when we get back from Europe with a few short road trips scattered in there. We've got a lot more back-to-back games than we've had in previous years but that's expected with the Olympic break and shortened season.

It's laid out fairly well from a home and road point of view. We only go out West once. Last year we did it twice. So I'm pretty happy with the regular season schedule.

It allows us time to recover from Europe, training camp and exhibition. The games seem to be spread out in pretty good fashion to hopefully avoid some of the pitfalls last year -- the long losing streaks that hampered us.

[on 15 sets of back-to-back games] It's a reality of the NHL now. It's something you have to deal with. You have to realize everybody's doing it. We happen to be in a spot in South Florida where we're in the top five for travel in the league. ...I don't think it's a positive or negative.

[on finishing the season with four of the final five games at home] Let's hope they matter. The idea is you set the table in the regular season. Not many teams have a spot solidified prior to the last two weeks of the season. Now our job is to set the table to make sure those games matter. 

RANDY SEXTON

The most important thing is that with starting the season in Europe we get a chance for our team to recover from that. There's a better balance of home and away games than in the past. We need to seize that opportunity. And lastly, going into the last couple of weeks we hope we'll be in a position where we can really push the home-ice advantage to our advantage to really push ourselves into the playoffs.

[On how much the Panthers pushed the post-Europe break to the NHL] We made that point loud and clear. Although the league has been going to Europe for a few years so we have the benefit of getting feedback from other teams. Everybody benefits from players getting the rest.

MICHAEL YORMARK

[on games against notable opponents around the holidays] It's pretty consistent with what we've had over the last couple of years. We're one of the first teams to sit down with the league over our schedule and they know the importance of having big games around holidays. We're a vacation destination so it's important we have games around Thanksgiving, that we have the right opponents around the holidays. ...We got the opponents we really wanted around the holidays.

I think there's a good balance between the hockey side and the business side. ...It's one of the better schedules we've had. That's because we've worked it. We've been talking to the league about our schedule since last December. We were the first team in their office to sit down with them and really make sure they understood what works for Florida, what opponents we need at what time of the season on what nights during the week. Considering it's an Olympic year, we got as close to what we wanted as we could have.

[on being able to avoid the long homestand near end of the season like 2008-09] It's difficult when you have too many home games clustered to have a good show rate from your season-seat holders. It's tough for them to come to four, five, six games in a row within a short span. Because it's a little more balanced, I think our show rate will be better. Our single game ticket sales will be stronger, and it's also easier to sell groups. We focused on that quite a bit. ...I like some of the changes we made this year.

Unlike defenseman Ville Koistinen, Johnson is not Finnish. However, the 27-year-old -- with no NHL experience -- played for TPS Turku of the Finnish Elite League last season, tying for first on the team with 20 assists and third with 28 points in 42 games.

Before playing in Finland, he was with Albany of the AHL, where he led the River Rats with 58 points (21 goals) in 79 games. His addition will give the Panthers more depth at AHL Rochester.

Soooooooooooo........what about any other potential signings, say Alex Tanguay?

Not talking about Tanguay, assistant GM Randy Sexton noted today: "We're being selective to be sure we find the player to fill the right need at the right price. We like the chemistry of our team so we have to be sensitive to that. ...We also want to provide a spot for some our younger players. So kids like [Shawn] Matthias and [Keaton] Ellerby and [Jason] Garrison and [Dmitry] Kulikov are going to have a chance and we don't to preclude them that opportunity if filling it in with a veteran at this stage."

How much money is available for the Panthers to spend?

"We want to be prudent. ...but there's dollars available if we need them. We just want to make sure we're spending wisely."

***In other team news, Jason MacDonald was named an assistant equipment manager. MacDonald spent the past three seasons as head equipment manager of the Florida Everblades, the Panthers' ECHL affiliate.

We already knew the Panthers would open the season in Finland with a pair of games against the Blackhawks on Oct. 2 and 3 -- a home-and-home series in which the Panthers are officially the road team in the opener. It'll be the first of 15 sets of games on back-to-back days.

Their first game after returning to the U.S. will be Oct. 9 at Carolina. Their home opener will be Oct. 10 against New Jersey.

They'll play all 29 other teams, including two Western Conference teams (Colorado and Nashville) twice in a home-and-home format. Speaking of the Western Conference, former Panthers Jay Bouwmeester and Olli Jokinen return to the BankAtlantic Center with the Flames for a game Feb. 5. Former Panthers' goalie Roberto Luongo and the Canucks will be here the following week for a Feb. 11 game.

The Panthers will end the regular season April 11 at home against Tampa Bay.

Here are some interesting tidbits, as well as the entire schedule below:

2000-10 Schedule Highlights:

• The Panthers open the 2009-10 season in Helsinki, Finland, when they take on the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday, Oct. 2 and Saturday, Oct. 3 at Hartwell Areena, as part of the Compuware NHL Premiere series.
• The Panthers open the season at home on Saturday Oct. 10 when the host the New Jersey Devils at 7 p.m. Fans are encouraged to arrive early and participate in the opening night “Rock the Rink” festivities.
• For the second consecutive year, Florida visits the RBC Center for the Carolina Hurricanes regular season opener on Friday, Oct. 9.  
• The defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins visit South Florida on Monday, Nov. 23 and on Sunday, Jan. 3.
• Florida visits the Western Conference Champion Detroit Red Wings on Friday, Nov. 20.
• The Panthers will play five games against their Southeast Division foes (Oct. 9 at CAR; Oct. 12 at TB, Nov. 4 vs. CAR; Nov. 6 vs. WSH; Nov. 6 at WSH) during the club’s first 25 games of the 2009-10 campaign.
• Florida will play four of their last five games of the 2009-10 season at the BankAtlantic Center, with their only away game occurring in Tampa Bay on Sat. Apr. 10.
• For the third consecutive year all Saturday home games will start at 7 p.m. in order to better accommodate families who attend.
• The Panthers will host five (5 p.m.) Sunday matinee games and will also host the Montreal Canadiens at 5 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.  
• The Panthers 2009-10 home schedule includes five Sunday contests, six Monday games, three Tuesdays, eight Wednesdays, four Thursdays, five Fridays and nine Saturday contests. 
• The Cats will host four games in October, seven in November, seven in December, seven in January, four in February, seven in March and four in April.
• Florida’s busiest month will be both December and March when the Cats play 15 games.
• The Panthers longest road trip of the season will be four games when they visit Columbus (Dec. 9), New Jersey (Dec. 11), Pittsburgh (Dec. 12) and the NY Islanders (Dec. 14).
• The National Hockey League will take a two-week break (Feb. 14-28) to allow their players to compete in the 2010 Winter Olympics that will take place in Vancouver, B.C.

2009-10 Florida Panthers Schedule Chronological

ALL TIMES EASTERN

ALL DATES & TIMES SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Tanguay's agent, Robert Sauve, said the Panthers are one of five or six teams he's talking with that Tanguay is considering signing with.

"They're one of the teams we've talked to, but that's about all I can say," Sauve said. He added that he's received "a few offers," but wouldn't say whether the Panthers have made an offer.

"We're still looking at everything, trying to find the best situation for him," Sauve said. "We're going to take a little more time. We have a feeling we're close with some teams, but we don't know how much time it's going to take to finalize."

Tanguay had 16 goals and 25 assists in 50 games with the Canadiens last season. He made $5.375 million, with a salary cap hit of $5.25 million, but is expected to take a considerable pay cut.

Do you want the Panthers to sign Tanguay?

Mink, 30, has played in seven career NHL games -- all with the Capitals. In 68 games with their AHL affiliate, Hershey (Pa.), last season, he totaled 32 goals and 59 points. The Stowe, Vermont native had seven goals and eight assists in the playoffs as Hershey won the Calder Cup.

“Graham, a two-time Calder Cup champion, has experienced tremendous success on the AHL level and also understands what it takes to compete on the National Hockey League level,” Panthers' assistant general manager Randy Sexton said in a statement released by the team.