Panthers look to sign Trocheck, Stamkos not a high priority for now

The Florida Panthers have their sights set on a talented pending-free-agent forward. No, not that one.

The club has already tendered Vincent Trocheck a qualifying offer, according to Harvey Fialkov of the Sun Sentinel.

Teams have until Monday at 5 p.m. ET to extend qualifying offers to their restricted free agents in order to gain the right to match an offer sheet from another club or receive draft-pick compensation.

Trocheck can't accept the offer until July 1, and it will expire if he doesn't accept it by July 15.

The 22-year-old center tied for third on the Panthers with 25 goals and ranked fifth on the club with 53 points in his third season with Florida.

As for the "big fish" in potential unrestricted free agency, Panthers general manager Tom Rowe told Fialkov Saturday that Steven Stamkos "isn't a high priority and that won't change for a couple of days."

The Panthers have nearly $19 million in cap space, but the GM said only small tweaks are required to improve the club that won the Atlantic Division title.

"We only have a third-line position we need to fill. We're targeting a bunch of guys we put together. We'll start calling around the agents, get the interviewing process going, and see if there's interest on the other side and go from there.

"Getting (defenseman Keith Yandle) signed before free agency and (acquiring defenseman Mark Pysyk for Dmitry Kulikov during the draft) filled a couple of holes. We still got a couple more up front we got to take care of."

Rowe's comments - along with the Panthers' cap flexibility and activity at the draft - suggest they should continue to be active when the free-agent frenzy begins July 1.