5 things Boughner & company must do
It may not seem like it in Sunrise, but the Florida Panthers are just 17 months removed from the franchise’s best season ever. The problem was that there was a whole season between then and now.
Florida rode its young core to a 103-point season and the division title in 2015-16 before crashing last season to 81 points and a playoff-less season. It fired its coach, installed its general manager behind the bench before ultimately finishing sixth in the Atlantic Division.
This year, the Panthers have a different general manager, a different head coach and a new-look forward group. Here are five things Florida needs to do to return to the postseason in 2017-18:
1. The new guys have to score
The Panthers lost five of their top scorers from last season, and will be looking for contributions from a handful of offseason acquisitions. Jonathan Marchessault was selected in the expansion draft by the Vegas Golden Knights. Reilly Smith was traded to the Golden Knights. Jussi Jokinen was bought out of his contract. Jason Demers was traded to Arizona. And, of course, Jaromir Jagr was not re-signed. In all, the five departed players combined for 81 goals and 109 assists.
Enter the new guys. Evgenii Dadonov will replace Jagr and join the top line with Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov. Dadonov is in his second stint with the Panthers after he spent five seasons in the KHL, including a 30-goal, 36-assist output last year. He, along with Radim Vrbata (55 points with Arizona last season) and Jamie McGinn (two career 20-goal seasons) will be asked to fill the scoring holes.
2. The returning need to stay healthy
One of the most common refrains about Florida’s disappointing season last year was that the Panthers were often injured. Huberdeau missed the first 51 games of the season with an Achilles’ tendon injury, but rebounded to notch 26 points in the final 31 games. Barkov missed 15 games at the end of December through January and the final six games of the season.
Due to head and neck injuries, Aaron Ekblad missed 14 of the final 15 games of the season. And Roberto Luongo missed the last fiveplus weeks of the season dealing with hip issues. Nick Bjugstad didn’t play in 28 games. Ekblad, Luongo and Bjugstad have said they changed their summer routines to try and stay healthy this season, and if Florida gets full seasons from these five key players, a return to the playoffs would be the expectation.
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3. Figure out goalie split
The Panthers have two serviceable goaltenders in Luongo and James Reimer, both of whom played at least 40 games a season ago. Reimer’s 43 games and 39 starts were both careerhighs for the 29 year old. For Luongo, he’s only played fewer than last year’s 40 games once in his career, a 20-game season in 2012-13. The Panthers will likely lean more on backup Reimer more than other NHL teams would, given Luongo’s age (38) and injury history.
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Luongo said he wasn’t concerned how many games he started, only that he wanted to win. Should Reimer earn more starts, that’s just fine with Luongo. (“He’s a starter in the NHL,” Luongo said. “There’s no doubt about it.”) Goaltender coach Robb Tallas said in the preseason that the Panthers would need both Reimer and Luongo to succeed this season.
4. An improved power play boosts the offense
Last year, half of the Panthers special teams was superb. Their penalty kill ranked second in the NHL by killing 85.3 percent of penalties. The power play, though, left something to be desired. It ranked 23rd, out of 30 teams, by scoring on just 17 percent of its manadvantages. And Florida’s four best scoring options on the power play are all gone. (Marchessault, Jagr, Smith and Jokinen combined for 26 power-play goals. The rest of the team had 19.)
During the preseason, the Panthers rolled out a power play unit that used one defenseman and four forwards. The entire first line figures to be on the top power-play unit along with potentially Bjugstad to provide a presence in front of the crease. Defensemen Keith Yandle, Ekblad and Michael Matheson are battling for two spots to pilot the power play.
5. Bob Boughner imprints his style on team
The Panthers made several off-the-ice changes in the offseason, most prominently re-installing Dale Tallon as the general manager and hiring Bob Boughner to replace Tom Rowe as the team’s coach. Boughner played 630 games during his 11-year NHL career as a physical, enforcing defenseman before becoming an assistant for both the Columbus Blue Jackets and San Jose Sharks. Boughner is only 46 years old and the Panthers job is his first head coaching job in the NHL.
Some Panthers have regarded Boughner as a players’ coach and have lauded his new system as simple, saying that it would allow Florida to play fast. Boughner brings a structure and confidence that was, perhaps, missing at times last year under Rowe.
mdefranks@ sun-sentinel.com; On Twitter @MDeFranks.