Colby Guy
The Florida Panthers currently have $3 million in cap space as they head into the opening round of the NHL Draft and find themselves with multiple players up for new contracts when free agency opens on July 13
Mason Marchment, Claude Giroux and Ben Chiarot are unrestricted free agents while Eetu Luostarinen and Lucas Carlsson are restricted free agents.
Florida also has to worry about Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar hitting the open market in the 2023 offseason.
While the Florida Panthers head into the first round of the draft without a first-round pick, there are still a lot of questions to be asked headed into it.
Will the Panthers make a move to clear cap space?
Can Florida afford to bring back pieces like Giroux and Marchment?
Who likes bringing leftovers to practice?
You guys asked and we answered.
In this iteration of the FHN Mailbag, I get to all of your pressing questions about the Panthers and their plans for this offseason.
Let’s get right to it.
This is an intriguing question for a couple of reasons.
For one, Aaron Ekblad has had spurts of being one of the best defensemen in the league over the past few seasons, but injuries held him from having a full season at that level.
When ranking Ekblad among the best defensemen in the league, it’s hard to pinpoint where exactly he would be because he hasn’t had the full-season numbers that guys like Cale Makar, Viktor Hedman, and Roman Josi — and it definitely is not his fault.
Both injuries he sustained came off of freak incidents and he came back skating at a high level both times he came back.
Even then, it still hampers him to the point where I would put him just outside that top tier of defensemen.
Makar, on the other hand, might be on his own level.
He has just about all of the tools you would want in an offensive-defenseman of his caliber: He skates and handles the puck like an elite forward while being able to log those heavy minutes and make plays in the defensive zone.
He is a generational talent.
It is a bit unfair to compare the two because Ekblad is a bigger guy that has a more physical element to his game while carrying a lot of tools on both ends of the ice while Makar is more of your finesse type of guy, but Makar just does it all.
A healthy Ekblad definitely holds an argument in that top tier of defenseman, but I think we’ve reached the point where Makar is the consensus best defenseman in the league, especially after what he did in the playoffs this year.
What do you personally want to see from the next Cats ReverseRetro? — IslesxCats
The boring answer for me would be a red version of their last iteration of the reverse retro. That was done beautifully and the red jerseys were iconic back in the 90s.
The interesting answer? Use the sun/palm tree logo as the primary logo.
That logo has always been a beloved secondary logo and it would be interesting to see what they could do with it in a reverse retro.
Maybe even combine it with those JetBlue uniforms to spice it up. Or not.
My top requests for this next set of Reverse Retros are this: The Avalanche to utilize the yeti foot logo, and the Islanders to bring back the fisherman uniforms.
If the Panthers don’t trade Hornqvist or Bob, is it realistically possible to keep Marchment and Giroux? — Stephen Shiller
Unless a piece like Sam Bennett or Brandon Montour is moved, I don’t think so.
Both Marchment and Giroux would command more than $3 million on the open market and while it is widely reported that the former wants to stay, it would take more than $1-2 million to get it done.
Which Panther is most likely to bring in foil-wrapped leftovers to a practice? — Nick Diaz
I am pretty sure I’ve seen Jonathan Huberdeau and/or Patric Hornqvist out in the lobby with foil-wrapped leftovers after a practice one day.
I’ll go with one of them.
George here: I will go with Sasha Barkov. He seems like a guy who would have a party one night and wrap everything up to share the next day.
Why are the Florida Panthers named after a state when there are two teams in Florida? — Owen Krepps, Vegas Hockey Now
The animal the team is named after is the Florida panther, so it fits really well in that aspect.
Miami Panthers does not roll off the tongue as well, even if the name was installed during the Miami Arena days. If it was installed now, it would make zero sense.
I am looking at anyone funny if they call Sunrise, FL “Miami.”
And yes, I did hear someone call Sunrise “Miami” during the Avalanche-Red Wings documentary. Yuck.
George here: One big reason why the team is named ‘Florida’ instead of Miami — they did start playing at Miami Arena which is why it was referenced as such in that documentary — is founding owner H. Wayne Huizenga was not fond of Miami.
He was a Broward guy, went to Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale and based his companies there as well. When he brought baseball to town, the easy name would have been the ‘Miami Marlins’ but he went with ‘Florida Marlins.’ The hockey team followed — and took on the ‘Florida’ name as well.
They will never be the ‘Sunrise Panthers’ but ‘South Florida Panthers’ has a certain ring to it. Fort Lauderdale would certainly like the prestige of having a pro team named after its city if the team was to ever move east.
And, like it or not, the Florida Panthers play in the Miami television market which brings a lot more cache than “Broward County.”
Obviously the Panthers need to clear cap space. What are the odds the Panthers can move Bobrovsky and his no-trade? Is Bob even on board with it? Also, I am a huge fan of Marchment and know he has earned a decent contract. Are the Panthers prioritizing re-signing him or are they resolved to losing him? — Cats and Leafs
For Sergei Bobrovsky to consider moving the no-trade clause, it would likely have to be a trade to a contender — Washington, for example.
Florida will definitely not be able to get off of that contract easily and Bobrovsky would not be on board with it unless it’s a destination he likes.
As for Marchment, Florida would love to bring him back, but it comes back to creating cap space first before they can bring him and Giroux back. The sense is that Giroux is the bigger priority out of the two, but they would love to have both back.
Hey Colby – All season “fans” put the hate on Bob and now want to trade him. I thought he was very good this year. The question is this. Do you really think Knight is ready to be the No. 1? Or would he benefit from another year or two as backup? #AskFHN — David Forsyth
Hi, David!
I talked a lot about this in a past article (linked here), so I will answer this one briefly.
Yes, I think he could be ready for that No. 1 job if Bobrovsky was to be dealt this offseason.
Throughout the season, he has proven to become more and more reliable when he gets a heavier workload.
Looking at his numbers towards the end of the regular season, he went 10-3-1 with a .921/2.23 and two shutouts, which is a huge step up from what he was doing when his starts were scattered.
Giving Knight those consistent starts at the NHL level will only help him grow into the elite goaltender he was touted to be and it seems like he is ready for that challenge.
Not Panthers exactly but NHL-related. How come the NHL doesn’t have player or team options on contracts like baseball does? Is that something they would have to agree on the CBA? I was just curious. — They Live We Sleep
It definitely is something that has to be agreed upon in the CBA — it’s exactly why baseball’s free-agency structure is as different as it is.
It’s an interesting question because I think the implementation of them could definitely help out both parties.
Team options could give teams more control in those ELC years if they are used the same way they are in the NFL where a team gets a team option on the fifth year of that player’s rookie deal, while a player option gives the player a lot more power.
Those player options could put a lot more pressure on a team to create a winner around a star.
If this upcoming season was a player option for Jonathan Huberdeau, it could have been interesting to see what dominoes could have fallen if he chose to opt out of the last year of his deal…
The Panthers have that rule not existing to thank because he would not be able to get the raise he would want from Florida this year with the $6 million in dead cap they have.
Obviously, Ekblad is a core Panther but just curious – how much of a difference is there between him and Makar? Thanks! — Ian Payner