Florida (AP) -- The Florida Panthers and LA Kings came to an agreement on a trade that was confirmed by the league today, that will see the Panthers defence bolstered, as well as should pay benefits to the offence through an improved powerplay and break-out from their own end.

Leave the Panthers for LA is young hard hitting dman Brooks Orpick along with the Panther's first round pick next season.  Coming back tot he Panthers is all-around defenceman Kimmo Timmonen.

"I think that this really helps our team out a tremendous amount" the Panthers GM commented on the trade.  "Brooks was a hard hitter, but he had trouble controlling the puck and couldn't make that break-out pass that you need these days.  That's something that I think Kimmo is really going to be able to help with.  Plus he's simply great controlling the puck, and is better defensively as well.  I know we gave up a younger guy and a pick, but at the end of the day when the opportunity came up to pick up a great defenceman like Kimmo we couldn't pass it up.  He may have only 2 years on his contract, but we're confident that we can convince him to possibly stick around for 1 more after that.  With the addition of Kimmo, I really think we've got a great core of defencemen, especially our top 3 of Andrei (Markov), Ryan (Whitney) and now Kimmo."

After the Panthers 5-1 loss yesterday, expect to see Timmonen in the lineup for tonights game, as well as Curtis Sanford getting his 2nd start of the season while Lundqvist rests up a bit.