Colby Guy
With the Florida Panthers in the dog days of summer, a lot of questions and options are starting to surface.
Was Sasha Barkov the right choice to be captain?
Did the team get worse during the offseason?
Will the Panthers trade for Matthew Tkachuk?
Instead of answering these questions in a traditional mailbag, I wanted to spice things up.
I took to Twitter to gather your hottest takes on the Panthers and I am here to rate them — giving them a temperature check, if you will.
These takes will be rated on a 0 to 100 scale with 0 being an opinion that is fair and not overly wild and a 100 being something way out of left field that could be proven wrong.
There are a few definitions for ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ takes, but for the article’s sake, that is how we’re rating them.
Anyway, let’s get this underway.
The Panthers will not win a championship with Sasha Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau as their best players… Specifically Huberdeau. — George
Heat Index: 57
I’m on the fence here for a couple of reasons.
For one, this core is still relatively young with only Huberdeau, 29, being older than 27 as of right now. Barkov turns 27 before training camp while Ekblad turns 27 following the All-Star break.
They have not had much playoff experience either, with 2016 and 2021 being the only years aside from last season that they made the playoffs, excluding the 2020 qualifiers.
Ekblad went six years without a postseason appearance after missing the 2021 playoffs with a lower-body injury and played a pivotal role in Florida’s first taste of playoff success in 26 years following another injury in 2022.
All three of them have proven to be star players in this league, and as Tampa Bay’s core did following their sweep against Columbus in 2019, they have a chance of winning together.
Will they do it?
That remains to be seen.
Last season was their best shot at winning, as it was the last year the Panthers had both Barkov and Huberdeau at their sub-$6 million cap hits before their deals started to expire.
Now, Barkov’s raise to $10 million, Keith Yandle’s buyout money this season and Huberdeau’s ensuing extension complicate things here.
If Bill Zito finds hidden gems like Carter Verhaeghe and Anthony Duclair at low cap hits in the future to build a team as deep as last season’s team was, it can be possible.
This offseason is telling me that they will have to wait a bit.
As for the “Huberdeau specifically” comment, he showed he can be a contributor in the playoffs in 2021 against Tampa Bay when he had 10 points in six games.
Don’t let recency bias tell you otherwise.
George Richards checks in: I did not ask this question.
The Panthers will beat the Lightning in a playoff series next year. The Lightning may have a “dynasty” but it’s hard to have a team that plays at that high of a level for four consecutive years. — DojeMode
Heat Index: 64
The Colorado Avalanche set the blueprint for what it takes to beat the Lightning — the willingness to drive the net and capitalize off of the chances created by their speed and skill guys.
Do the Panthers have it?
With Mason Marchment gone, I’m not quite sure.
Marchment was by far the best on the team at driving the net and scoring off of those second chance opportunities, which is the key to scoring on Andrei Vasilevskiy.
His absence was apparent during Florida’s series loss last season and the underwhelming signings made to replace him do not provide the same ability.
In all fairness, the Panthers did not have the cap space to make that move, but as pertaining to next year, they are missing a key piece here.
It would take some other players stepping up, which is possible, especially under new leadership in Paul Maurice, but I would give the edge to Tampa Bay right now.
Barkov is not captain material. Doesn’t get angry, or even really over-the-top hyper. He’s a great player, a franchise star no doubt. But he’s a mild-tempered guy. Compare him to captains like Ovechkin, Toews, Crosby. Emotional guys. The Panthers need a different captain who will fight. — Zach Earnest, among others
Heat Index: 86
This has been a very popular take ever since the season ended, but one that is fairly off base.
Barkov, while mild-mannered, is a player who leads by example and a player everyone in the room does not want to let down. That is why he earned the captaincy.
In public, he is quiet, but he does what he can as a leader to help his teammates develop (case-in-point: Anton Lundell) and the locker room has been tight-knit with Barkov wearing the ‘C.’
The premise of who is wearing the captain patch is pretty widely overrated.
Any player in that locker room can step up and be a leader at any point and that is what helped the Panthers at points, especially when they hit a rough spot during the first round and called a players-only meeting.
This is still an inexperienced group and these are questions that have floated around about players like Ovechkin and Steven Stamkos before they first won their Stanley Cup.
If the Panthers do win a Cup, Barkov’s name will be floating around with the captains listed above.
Gustav Forsling is a top-line defenseman and deserves the chance to play with Aaron Ekblad on said top line. He’s a great shot and could help MacKenzie Weegar play on his natural side, instead of having two right-handed defensemen try and play together. — moray eel enjoyer
Heat Index: 5
This is a hill I am willing to die on and this is a take I was planning on defending in a full article.
I probably still will.
Gus Forsling is one of the most underrated defensemen in the league and his skillset would very much complement Ekblad’s.
His skating ability helps him cover defensively while also being one of the smoothest puck carriers in the league.
Forsling is a great puck carrier and can help the offense break out while allowing Ekblad to find space to blast off one of his signature slap shots.
Meanwhile, Brandon Montour could pivot to the left side of the second pair with MacKenzie Weegar and have a similar effect there.
Both Forsling and Montour are deserving of more minutes and this could be the way to go.
Matthew Tkachuk for Duclair, Denisenko, Sourdif, Hornqvist, and a 2nd — Joey
Heat Index: Hotter than the flames on Calgary’s logo.
The Flames would hang up the phone immediately if this was offered.
With teams like Nashville and Dallas having more draft capital, a deeper prospect pool and more cap space to get a deal done for Matthew Tkachuk, this is not enough, even with Anthony Duclair included.
For one, Duclair would not get moved until he is cleared to play and trading for a player who is just starting his recovery from a torn Achilles is a pretty risky move.
It also does nothing for Florida cap-wise considering the moves they made were implying that he would be going on LTIR.
Grigori Denisenko is also running out of time to prove himself as an NHL-caliber talent and likely does not provide as much value as he once did.
Any move for Tkachuk likely starts with Mackie Samoskevich and Florida’s 2025 first-rounder, which still may not be enough to move the needle for Calgary compared to what other teams are offering.
Anton Lundell is Florida’s second most valuable piece behind Barkov as of now and his development will determine whether or not this core wins a cup. — Nick
Heat Index: 21
With Florida’s cap situation the way it is moving forward, especially this coming season with over $6 million of dead cap hitting the books, Lundell’s development has grown to be an important piece to winning a championship.
The logic of this take definitely applies to both winning now and winning in the future.
If he takes a big enough step up next season, the value he would provide on his entry-level deal would surely make up for production lost with Marchment and Claude Giroux’s departures and Duclair’s injury.
His development moving forward could also give Florida the deadly one-two punch up front that aided many championship-level teams.
Think Crosby-Malkin or Stamkos-Point.
If he reaches his peak, Florida would essentially have two Barkov clones, which is not bad to have at all.
Got a Hot Take on the Florida Panthers?
Hit us up on Twitter using the hashtag #FlaPanthersHotTake — or leave it in the comment section here.
More coming next week!