Florida Panthers: Joel Quenneville hiring begins offseason of changes
The Florida Panthers face the most critical offseason in franchise history. Hiring Joel Quenneville is just the first step.
A wise man once said the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. For the Florida Panthers, their journey is one towards respectability. In 25 seasons as a franchise, they’ve made the Stanley Cup Playoffs just five times. In other words, they’ve been one of the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference five times in 25 seasons. The Panthers have made the first step in hiring head coach Joel Quenneville on Monday.
Quenneville doesn’t begin to fix all the issues with the team. However, he gives the team instant credibility, just like Barry Trotz did for the New York Islanders in the summer of 2018. Quenneville has won three Stanley Cups. One of them was won while working with current Panthers general manager Dale Tallon. Tallon and Quenneville took a struggling franchise and turned them into winners.
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The Panthers better hope they can still perform magic because it will take nothing less to turn the Panthers into consistent contenders. They’ve struggled to win over fans because outside of Canada and Original Six cities, people aren’t going to buy tickets to watch a losing hockey team. Especially not with a consistent Stanley Cup contender nearby.
Hiring Quenneville is a terrific first step. However, the Panthers have a lot more steps to make and they can’t afford to make the wrong ones because according to Forbes, they’re losing money at an alarming rate.
Florida has been tied to both Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky. The Panthers need goaltending, so the latter is more likely to sign with the Panthers than the former. However, with Quenneville on board, Panarin might be willing to sign with them.
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Regardless of if he signs with the Panthers or not, Florida’s going to need to make some changes. During the 2017-18 season, the team lost $21 million. They paid their team a higher salary this season ($69.87 million not including $1.5 million in potential bonuses) than they did in 2017-18 ($68.14 million), so it’s likely they lost money this year too.
The Panthers are already investing a reported $5.25 million (potentially $7 million with bonuses) a year for the next five seasons into Quenneville. Add Bobrovsky at a conservative estimate of $7 million and you get something between $12.25 million and $14 million. Let’s say Panarin signs for $9 million a season.
This adds up to between $21.25 million and $23 million per season, which would be a significant investment for a team who just lost $21 million a year ago. All of this is before considering the likelihood of Bobrovsky and Panarin getting front-loaded deals, which would give them more salary in the early portion of their long-term deals.
If the Panthers want to add at least $22 million in salary, they’re going to need to clear some money. Assuming they don’t re-sign pending unrestricted free agents Jamie McGinn, Troy Brouwer, Derek McKenzie, or Riley Shehan, this will clear over $9 million of salary.
However, a large portion of this will have to go to re-signing restricted free agents Denis Malgin, Ian McCoshen, MacKenzie Weegar, and all their non-roster RFAs. Add in Quenneville’s deal and the team has used up their salary savings before adding Panarin and Bobrovsky.
All of this adds up to the Panthers having to cut some more salary. Putting goaltender Roberto Luongo on the LTIR wouldn’t help because they would still have to pay his salary (though it would give them some salary cap space). Trading goaltender James Reimer would clear $3.1 million and it would make sense with young goaltender Sam Montembeault in the minors. But who would take on Reimer’s three remaining years?
The Panthers could also trade defenseman Mark Pysyk ($3.5 million salary next season), who is an NHL caliber defenseman but is making too much for a team who needs to save money. Ditto with Colton Sceviour, who is a perfectly fine bottom-six forward, but is also due $1.2 million per season over the next three seasons. The Panthers have a surplus of young forwards, so they can replace him with a cheaper option.
However, signing both Panarin and Bobrovsky would likely require the departure of Mike Hoffman or someone similar. The Panthers are going all in with making their team better, but their roster makes things more difficult because of the finances. It would be hard to envision them having a future in Florida if they fail.
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Quenneville has a talented roster and with the right additions, the Panthers could be a playoff team next season. It’s up to Tallon to make the necessary difficult decisions and up to their owners to give Tallon what he needs to build a consistent winner.