George Richards, FHN Publisher
Our long offseason is about to come to an end as the Florida Panthers are town practicing on their own, ready to report for training camp in a week.
The Panthers are expected to report for physicals next Sunday with the first full on-ice practice on Monday, Jan. 4.
It will be the first full practice for the Panthers since the day before they were bounced out of Toronto.
A lot has changed since the summer.
Happy New Year, hockey fans.
This will, obviously, be a different season.
Since it is starting in January and not October, it will not be as long as ones we are used to.
Instead of 82 games, this NHL season will consist of 56 games (we hope). Instead of playing every team in the league, teams will only play within new, temporary divisions.
The Panthers will compete in a revamped Central Division along with fellow Atlantic transplants Detroit and Tampa Bay; Carolina, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas and Nashville will also be joining.
Last we left the Panthers, they were getting knocked out of the Toronto bubble in four games to the New York Islanders with GM Dale Tallon being let go (officially) a few days later.
Much has changed around the Panthers since from the front office to a revamped roster.
Big-name players such as Mike Hoffman, Evgenii Dadonov and Mike Matheson are gone.
Although some may look at the moves made by new GM Bill Zito and his staff as a rebuilding effort, it is really more of a trying to correct things on the fly.
The Panthers are still a team built around its core group and should compete for a playoff spot in the Central.
With Matheson and Vincent Trocheck gone, the Florida core now consists of Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Aaron Ekblad and Sergei Bobrovsky.
All four of these players need to lead the Panthers on and off the ice moving forward.
Going into 2021, the Panthers lost some scoring in Hoffman and Dadonov (and, to a lesser extent, Matheson), but Zito feels the additions have made the Panthers deeper not to mention tougher to play against. We will see.
Florida definitely has some questions heading into the 2021 season — ones that will start to get answered in the coming weeks.
With training camp opening Sunday, the Panthers have to get their game going quickly as the season opens less than two weeks later: Florida will start its 2021 campaign against the Dallas Stars at BB&T Center on Jan. 14.
Here are some of the most pressing issues facing the Panthers as we roll into 2021:
Can Sergei Bobrovsky be ‘Big Game Bob’ once again?
Bobrovsky’s first season in South Florida was a tough one, he has admitted as much.
Yet, once the postseason started, Bobrovsky looked like the two-time Vezina Trophy winner the Panthers signed to a seven-year, $70-million contract — the largest in franchise history.
To dismiss the whole of signing Bobrovsky after one season would be foolish. Bobrovsky can return to his elite level in net, and with some improved defensive play from Florida’s forwards and defensemen, he should have a little help.
The Panthers are expected to carry two additional goalies in Chris Driedger and Sam Montembeault and both should find games in this compressed and uncertain schedule.
But make no mistake: This is Bob’s net. The Panthers will only go so far as their goalie takes them and Bobrovsky is the guy.
Where’s the scoring going to come from?
With Dadonov and Hoffman moving on (Dadonov got a three-year deal from Ottawa, Hoffman remains on the market), the Panthers see their top two goal scorers from 2019-20 elsewhere.
Those goals will be hard to replace — but they could be able to find them elsewhere.
The loss of Dadonov and Hoffman hurts both in 5on5 and on the power play; Hoffman’s big shot is something the Panthers had missed for a long time. Dadonov was sneaky good as cleaning up rebounds or sliding into the play and using his shot to get pucks through.
Florida hopes to get some offensive contribution not only from the players they have (Noel Acciari had 20 goals last year but no one expects him to replicate that) with players such as Frank Vatrano and Brett Connolly.
The Panthers also have a number of newcomers with a little bit to prove. The first big move for Zito was trading Matheson to Pittsburgh and getting two-time Cup champ Patric Hornqvist.
He should see power play time, replacing Barkov in front of the net allowing the Florida captain to open up his playmaking ability a little more.
The Panthers also got 23-goal scorer Anthony Duclair on the cheap and he could slide into a top-six role and give the Panthers some options.
With the additions of players such as Carter Verhaeghe, Vinnie Hinostroza and Ryan Lombard, the Panthers could be a little less top-heavy when it comes to their lines and get some more scoring life out of their bottom-six (which would include Acciari).
On the defensive end, Matheson is a player with a lot of offensive upside, but newcomer Markus Nutivaara has shown he can put the puck in the net as well. If Florida gets more offensive production from the top pairing of Ekblad and MacKenzie Weegar, well, that will help as well.
Will the defense improve?
The Panthers only made a couple of moves on the backend (trading for Nutivaara and signing Radko Gudas) but that could be enough to help improve things substantially.
Matheson could turn into the player Florida envisioned when they locked him in with an eight-year deal in Pittsburgh, but it wasn’t going to happen here.
Nutivaara doesn’t have the physical skill Matheson does, but he is a good defensive player who has good stick work and doesn’t get caught in bad position. Gudas brings physicality and can move the puck out of harm’s way.
Florida’s forward additions (save for Duclair, who isn’t exactly a poor defensive player but that isn’t his forte) should also prove to be pretty good defensive players who play a little more in all areas of the ice. That will help things out in the back end as well.
On the coaching front, Mike Kitchen will not return with Ulf Samuelsson taking his place.
How will Florida fare in the new NHL Central?
The Panthers may have to travel a little more in this new division, but they should be in a spot to challenge for one of the four playoff spots in the Central.
Hey, at least they didn’t get thrown into the Atlantic/Metropolitan division.
That’s a beast. This is manageable.
While the Central loses out in the Dallas/Minnesota swap, this is a division in which Tampa Bay comes in as the favorite with the Stars (the reigning west champs) looking like the other playoff lock.
Everything else is up for grabs. The Panthers are going to have to find some more success against the likes of Tampa Bay and Columbus, sure, but that doesn’t seem too unreasonable a request.
Florida should be a playoff contender in this division and if it is not, well, you thought this offseason brought a lot of change?
Which rookies will have the biggest breakout season?
In speaking about ‘where will the scoring come from’ up above, we left out the rookies by design.
Owen Tippett, at the very least, should have a big say in what the Panthers do on offense this season.
Don’t forget, before he got hurt while playing in the AHL, the Panthers were having internal talks about trading Hoffman at the deadline and replacing him with Tippett.
The Panthers have groomed Tippett to join the lineup when he is good and ready and he looks good and ready. Do not be surprised if he opens camp in a top-six role — perhaps up with Barkov and Huberdeau — and potentially lines up on the right side on Power Play 1 where Hoffman did so much of his damage.
As far as Grigori Denisenko goes, it appears the Panthers are going to let him work his way in. A strong camp (word is he has looked great in the informal workouts) could go a long way toward an early jump into the lineup.
Denisenko has skills and is going to get the chance to show them off.