The good, bad and what’s next for Cats
After an unexpected early playoff exit in a record-setting season, the Panthers must decide whether to make wholesale roster changes this offseason, or run it back.
A few days had passed since the Florida Panthers’ record-setting season ended with a stunning sweep at the hands of the rival Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Panthers couldn’t believe it.
“I woke up this morning thinking we were playing,” interim coach Andrew Brunette said Wednesday after arriving at FLA Live Arena on the day Florida could have been playing Game 5 of the second round.
It was stunning not even necessarily because it ended in Round 2 — the Lightning, after all, has won the past two Stanley Cups — but because
of how quickly it did. Even though the Panthers made the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 1996, they still haven’t won a game there since then after losing their second-round series 4-0 to Tampa Bay on Monday.
For now, it makes for complicated feelings about the 2021-22 NHL season. By every reasonable measure, it was one of the two best in Florida history. The Panthers set regular-season records for points, wins, points percentage and goals, and won only its second first-round series ever.
They also felt like it was a missed opportunity. Presidents’ Trophy winners are supposed to be true Cup contenders and Florida couldn’t even win a game in the second round.
“I did not see this coming at all,” said 42-year-old forward
Joe Thornton, who signed a one-year deal with the Panthers last year to chase a cham
pionship.
THE GOOD: BREAKOUTS AND BOUNCEBACKS
Really, just about everything in the regular season was good for Florida.
On offense, there were breakout performances everywhere: Star center Aleksander Barkov set a new career high with 39 goals, All-Star winger Jonathan Huberdeau set the NHL record for assists by a left wing in a single season, forward Sam Reinhart justified the first-round pick the Panthers paid for him by averaging more than a point per game, rookie center Anton Lundell scored 44 points at just 20 and wingers Carter Verhaeghe, Anthony Duclair
and Sam Bennett all scored at least 24 goals to form a formidable — and team-controlled — supporting cast.
On defense and in goal, there were bouncebacks: Star defenseman Aaron Ekblad didn’t miss a beat after fracturing his leg late last season and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky posted his best single-season save percentage since he joined Florida in 2019.
Of all the aforementioned players, everyone other than Bobrovsky is 28 or younger, too.
“The Florida Panthers are going to be good for a long time,” Thornton said. “It’s exciting around here now.”
THE BAD: OFFENSE’S DISAPPEARING ACT
After just six total postseason wins in the past two years, Florida is sort of done with just being a great regular-season team, though.
The challenge now for the Panthers is figuring out why their regular-season success hasn’t carried over to the playoffs.
“I don’t think we need to change anything drastic,” Bennett said. “We have all the pieces there.”
Still, three goals in Round 2 after averaging 4.11 per game in the regular season is hard to write off as just a fluke.
Both the Lightning and Washington Capitals set a blueprint for how to slow down Florida, by clogging up the neutral zone to slow down the Panthers’ rush game and clogging up the slot to limit Huberdeau’s passing ability.
In less than a week, the Panthers went from the joy of a long-awaited firstround victory to answering all those same questions about whether this can work in the playoffs.
“We weren’t playing our best hockey during playoffs this year,” Bennett said. “That’s something that we’re going to have to figure out.”
OFFSEASON OUTLOOK, PREVIEW
Florida has most of its roster under contract for next year — including 12 of its top 13 scorers from last year — although it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re just going to run it back.
Impending unrestricted free agents: C/LW Joe Thornton, C/LW/RW Claude Giroux, C/LW/RW Maxim Mamin, C/RW Noel Acciari, LW/RW Mason Marchment, D Ben Chiarot, D Robert Hagg, D Petteri Lindbohm, D Markus Nutivaara
Impending restricted free agents: G Jonas Johansson, C Eetu Luostarinen, D Lucas Carlsson
The Panthers have less than $4 million in cap space available, according to CapFriendly.com, and need to find three forwards and one defenseman to fill out a 22-man roster.
It’s probably fair to assume the Panthers will be active in the trade market, both because general manager Bill Zito has been since the day he took over as GM and because of the cap crunch Florida is facing, with Huberdeau entering the final year of his contract and due for an extension. Bennett, Duclair, Verhaeghe and right wing Patric Hornqvist are all making between $3-5.3 million, which makes them relatively easy to move, if necessary.
The most valuable trade chip Florida might have, however, is star defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, who’s entering the final year of his deal. The Panthers
are staring at a situation where more than half of all their cap space could be tied up in contracts for Huberdeau, Barkov, Ekblad, Weegar and Bobrovsky. If this sounds unpalatable, Weegar might have to be the casualty to both open up short-term flexibility and perhaps help recoup some of the picks spent to add Giroux, Reinhart, Bennett and Chiarot in the past two years.
The wild card in all of this is Bobrovsky. Star rookie goaltender Spencer Knight is ready to take over at any moment and Bobrovsky, 33, finally has some positive trade value after posting a .919 save percentage in Round 2, and Florida explored trading him ahead of the deadline, Sportsnet reported.