The Florida Panthers made their first move on first day of free agency by hiring Mike Santos as the new assistant general manager.

Santos spent the previous four seasons as the director of hockey operations for the Nashville Predators.  Prior to that he was with the Panthers for two seasons — as director of hockey operations corporate counsel in 2002-03 and hockey operations consultant in 2001-02.

Of his many job duties, one will be overseeing the operations of the Panthers minor league affiliates which includes the Rochester Americans and Florida Everblades.

From NHL.com:

“Mike brings to our team more than 20 years of hockey experience after working in a variety of capacities in the National Hockey League, the American Hockey League and the North American Hockey League,” said Tallon. “He has done an incredible job in helping to assemble a competitive Nashville club that has qualified for the playoffs in three of the last four seasons. He is very knowledgeable in the CBA, contract negotiations, salary cap compliance, budget forecasting and minor league operations. We welcome Mike back to the Panthers and look forward to his continued contributions to the organization.”

There’s been a lot of change with the Panthers over the past five seasons they’ve been affiliated in some with the Amerks and for the first time things seem to be more hopeful than ever.