I gotta say man, the Florida Panthers have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. This was one of, if not the most exciting series with no question, the first ever “Battle of Florida” and the Panthers put up a heck of a fight. The Lightning are the defending Stanley Cup Champions and have pretty much the same team as last year, if not a better one. It would’ve been such an upset for the Panthers to pull it off. Nevertheless, it was exciting right from puck drop of game one, there was lots of physicality, chances going either way, plenty of goals, unlikely overtime heroes in Ryan Lomberg. The Panthers gave Tampa a run for their money, all without their captain and number one defender.
I can’t say it enough, at the end of the day the Lightning are just in another league compared to the Panthers. They have arguably the best goalie in the league, a Norris trophy candidate on defense, one of the league’s best goal scorers and on top of all that you got guys like Brayden Point, Mikhail Sergachev, Ryan McDonagh, Ondrej Palat, Yanne Gourde, the list goes on and on. This team just runs deep and unfortunately for a fresh faced playoff Florida team, it just didn’t match up.
However the Panthers do have a lot to be proud of and that starts some of their recent additions. Sam Bennett, who they acquired at the deadline really helped them out aside from his one game suspension. In five games played, he was tied for third on the team in points, providing more depth at the center ice position behind Barkov. Carter Verhaeghe had a great first season with the Panthers and helped them out a lot in this round against his former team. Obviously Florida has their top duo in Barkov and Huberdeau to thank for their success but they also have a lot of less known names that really stepped up this year and in this series. Mackenzie Weegar had a big year and really stepped up in the absence of Aaron Ekblad. Mason Marchment was a great pick up as well and really stepped it up in the playoffs scoring two goals in six games. Veteran guys like Patric Hornqvist and Radko Gudas helped give an edge to this younger team and helped compete with this strong Lightning team.
One of Florida’s biggest issues moving forward is goaltending, but not for their lack of it. It seems like overnight Sergei Bobrovski, who they are paying 10 million dollars a year for the next five years, is not the investment it seemed to be a couple years ago. Chris Driedger had a great season and certainly made a name for himself, proving he can be an NHL caliber goalie. The Panthers headed into the playoffs with Bobrovski but quickly handed the reins over to Driedger. Not a great look when you consider Bobrovski’s paycheck. As if it wasn’t bad enough that you’re now paying 10 million dollars to a backup goalie, a few days later he is now the third string goalie following the emergence of Spencer Knight, who came in to save the day (and a lot of pucks) in games 5 and 6 against the Lightning.
What makes the situation even less sensible is they drafted Spencer Knight 13th overall just weeks before throwing the check book at Sergei Bobrovski. Sure, you wouldn’t have expected Knight to be NHL ready so quickly nor would you have expected Dreidger to become such a solid NHL goalie. However you have to think the Panthers are going to think of every possible situation and see if there’s any way they can get out of this. Realistically, they will let Dreidger walk, hope Bobrovski picks his game back up and let Spencer Knight develop under him but I’m having a tough time wrapping my head around the idea of letting a solid goalie in Chris Dreidger walk for nothing and spending over 12% of our cap hit on a goaltender who’s best days may be way behind him.
As for the future of the rest of the team, there’s plenty to consider. Aleksandr Barkov only has one year remaining on his VERY cap friendly deal. Rumors regarding his future with the team have already surfaced and will undoubtedly continue to pick up until a decision is made. Alex Wennberg, Brandon Montour and Nikita Gusev are among their notable upcoming UFA’s. Frankly, they can live without extending all three and it’ll be interesting to see if they choose to bring any of them back. Wennberg probably makes the most sense to try to extend but it’ll depend on whether or not he’s happy in Florida as I’m sure he can get a pay raise through Free Agency.
Overall, the future of the Panthers looks pretty solid. If they’re able to hold onto Barkov and continue to build around him as well as Huberdeau and Ekblad they will be in great shape. They have an “island of misfit toys” type of group that has the potential to be something special if they can keep it rolling. We now know these guys can really compete as they gave Tampa a run for their money. Bill Zito will just have to add a couple more pieces, solidify their depth knowing they can make some noise in the postseason and they will be in great shape. With a healthy Ekblad hopefully being ready to go for next season, they’re certainly going to be a team to keep an eye on.
Chris Feldman
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