NHL’s Top Issues Facing the Florida Panthers: Back-to-Back Hopes, Defensive Talent and UFAs

This is the newest installment of THN.com’s continuous series concentrating on each NHL team’s significant concerns and subjects of fascination.

The Florida Panthers are next up. While the Stanley Cup champions still have a lot to celebrate, next season is a fresh start with a new set of questions that any NHL fan should pay attention to.

1. Can the Panthers replicate the Lightning’s recent dynasty streak with three straight Cup final appearances and two straight Cups?

The Panthers have earned the plaudits that come with making two straight runs to the Cup final and one championship. But their archrivals in Tampa Bay went one better by winning back-to-back Cups in 2020-21 and nearly won a third straight in 2022.

There’s certainly a chance Florida gets back to the Cup this coming season. But with the multiple roster changes the Panthers underwent this summer, it won’t be a cakewalk for them to regularly edge over the top teams and try their luck against the best club the Western Conference has to offer.

Florida has lost veteran forwards Vladimir Tarasenko, Nick Cousins, Kyle Okposo and Ryan Lomberg, backup goalkeeper Anthony Stolarz, and defenders Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson this off-season.

Only Montour can be regarded a big piece of the puzzle for the Panthers, but they won the Cup last season because their supporting cast was so deep and strong. They no longer have that same caliber of depth.

The complexities of the salary cap ensure that every Cup-winning squad needs to experience substantial change. For that reason, this writer will suggest that Florida won’t be able to repeat their performance from the past two seasons and that they’ll likely be eliminated before the Conference final next spring.

Call it a hunch if you want, but we’re of the belief it’s incredibly rare for any club to get to the Cup final for three straight years, let alone win two Cups in such a stretch.

Too many things have to go perfectly right for a club to win the Plinko game that is the playoffs, and the Panthers may easily be knocked out of the post-season by an Atlantic Division foe next year.

2. Will the Panthers once again allow the fewest goals against in the league?

Fronted by the goalie combo of starter Sergei Bobrovsky and backup Stolarz, the Panthers finished tied with the Winnipeg Jets for the fewest goals allowed (198) in the NHL last season.

Youngster Spencer Knight should replace Stolarz, but Knight spent all of last season in the AHL, with a .905 save percentage, and continuing to develop him rather than overworking him should be the emphasis.

Florida GM Bill Zito also brought in 30-year-old Chris Driedger, who also played most of his games last season in the AHL after injuries caused him to lose his No. 2 spot on the depth chart to Joey Daccord in Seattle.

All of which means Bobrovsky will be saddled with doing much, if not most, of the heavy work in net for the Panthers. Bobrovsky will be 36 years old by the time next season begins, and the miles on his competitive odometer (including 58 appearances last regular season) will, sooner or later, whittle down his efficiency.

Florida’s largely weakened defense corps won’t be able to take all the load off Bobrovsky, and the Panthers likely will take a backward step in terms of goals allowed in 2024-25.

This isn’t to suggest Florida can’t and won’t be a top defensive team in the Atlantic, but the NHL’s parity will test the Panthers to dominate on the defensive end the way they did last year.

Could they again limit teams to minimal offense? Sure – and having a well-rounded offense goes a long way in helping achieve that as well. But will they be the best group in their own zone for the second year running? Likely not.

3. How will the Panthers manage their pending (and strong) set of UFAs next summer?

Although Zito did well to retain most of the Panthers’ core together into next season, Florida’s salary cap troubles are not going away.

In particular, the Panthers’ financial commitments in the 2025-26 campaign are enormous indeed, with $65.5 million calculated for 14 players under contract for that season, according to PuckPedia.

Compounding problems is the spate of veterans who are expected to be UFAs next summer, including defenseman Aaron Ekblad and forwards Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe.

Combined with the Panthers’ three RFAs – defensemen Adam Boqvist and Tobias Bjornfot and winger Jesper Boqvist – Zito will be hard-pressed to avoid losing another veteran or two down the line.

It all speaks to the ephemeral nature of modern-day NHL rosters, but the Panthers must find out a way to keep the core intact and continue to push for more post-season triumph.

If we had to venture a guess as to who stays in Florida, we’d rank Verhaeghe first, Ekblad second,and Bennett third. Zito might be able to get two of those three vets signed to extensions, but it will be rather tricky to bring all three back.