2022-23 Florida Panthers Offseason Recap

The Florida Panthers historically have been one of the “have not” franchises in the NHL.

Since their inception in 1993, the Panthers have been regarded as one of the worst teams not only in the league but in the entirety of North American pro sports. However, over the last few years, the once dark and gloomy cloud surrounding the franchise has turned into a beautiful blue sky.

Florida now has the longest streak in team history for consecutive playoff berths with three. That might not seem like a lot, and believe me, it isn’t, but it shows rapid progress for a team that has become a legitimate contender for the first time.

Throughout the 2021-22 campaign, the Panthers were regarded by most to be one of, if not, the best team in the NHL. They were for sure dominant. Owning one of the most fun and high-octane offenses, the Panthers could score goals at an unbelievable pace.

The Panthers addressed depth, coaching, and made a huge trade this summer.

They finished the year scoring 337 goals, more than any other team in the league. Starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky posted his first good year after signing that massive contract a few summers back.

Andrew Burnette stepped in after Joel Quenneville got let go, and the team never skipped a beat. More importantly, the Panthers ended up winning the Presidents’ Trophy for the first time as the best team in the regular season.

They won their first playoff series in 26 years after Carter Verhaeghe slipped a puck into the net in overtime during game 6 against the Washington Capitals.

However, for all the team’s successes, the Panthers still couldn’t get past their arch-nemesis. After getting by the Capitals in the first round, Florida ended up getting eliminated by the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second straight year.

This time around, it wasn’t even competitive as the Lightning swept the Panthers. Heading into the offseason, many questions surrounded the franchise about what was to come.

Would Bill Zito find a way to keep even one of his talented UFAs? Would Andrew Brunette still be coaching? Would the Panthers make a move to create cap space to get another high-quality player? How much would the roster be affected due to the limited cap space?

Well, we have found out what this team would look like as we are two months away from the season starting up again. Let’s dive into what Florida has done this offseason and see where they stand as a team.

As stated earlier, the Panthers had some very difficult choices to make for their personnel after this year’s disappointing playoff loss. One of the first moves made by general manager Bill Zito was to make a change at the head coaching position.

Andrew Brunette did a wonderful job of stepping into an uncomfortable situation and making things work. After the first seven games, Joel Quenneville was let go following the controversial sexual abuse case involving his former team, the Chicago Blackhawks.

Brunette took charge and did a great job leading the team for the rest of the season. He was named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award. However, his flaws were quickly apparent come playoff time.

The biggest problem was that Brunette took way too long to make adjustments in the lineup when the Panthers were struggling. This was especially the case in the Tampa series where he kept everything the same until the writing was engraved on the wall.

So, Bill Zito made a bold move. He decided to go after a prominent name in NHL head coaching circles. Florida would be the fourth different franchise that newly appointed bench boss Paul Maurice will join.

Paul Maurice has had a long coaching career in the NHL and will give the Panthers experience behind the bench, something that they were lacking when Brunette was around.

Maurice got his first coaching gig with the Hartford Whalers in 1995. In 1997-98, the Whalers became the Carolina Hurricanes and Maurice would stay there until 2003-04. He led Carolina to three postseason berths, including a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2002.

He was replaced by Peter Laviolette during the 2003-04 season.

From 2006-08, Maurice would be the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. During his two campaigns in Toronto, Maurice never made the playoffs and posted subpar records.

In 2008-09, he returned to Carolina. He added another postseason appearance when the Hurricanes made the Eastern Conference Final in ’09. But that was the lone highlight for his second stint in Carolina.

He never made the playoffs again and was fired during the 2011-12 season. This led him to be hired by the Winnipeg Jets for the 2013-14 season.

From 2013-2021, the Jets were one of the more consistent teams in the Western Conference, making the playoffs five times under his leadership. However, the Jets made it out of the first round only twice, which included a Conference Final berth in 2018.

While Paul Maurice has proven to be a solid NHL coach, playoff success has largely eluded him. During his long career, he has only gotten past the second round three times. This isn’t all his fault, as some of the teams he coached weren’t sustainable and never made many deep playoff runs.

Also, many of the teams that he coached were undone by an opponent who was always better than what he had. In any case, little postseason success has been a major piece of criticism throughout his career.

This could be the most talented group that the 55-year-old coaches in his career. The team is already stacked with great talent. Aleksander Barkov, Aaron Ekblad, Gustav Forsling, Carter Verhaeghe, Anton Lundell and Anthony Duclair are some of the mainstays on the roster.

All of the players mentioned are in their 20s and have tons of years left in their primes. This is a capable team and they are still going to be really good.

As far as the roster is concerned, the Panthers had tons of decisions to make and not enough cap space to keep everyone.

Heading into free agency, the Panthers had a gluttony of unrestricted free agents that needed to be paid. Trade deadline acquisitions like Claude Giroux and Ben Chiarot as well as Mason Marchment headlined the crop that needed to be extended.

There were also crucial depth pieces like center Noel Acciari and defenseman Markus Nutivaara that were needing to be extended as well. The Panthers lost all those names and more:

• Center/Winger Claude Giroux – Ottawa (3 years, $19.5 million)
• Defenseman Ben Chiarot – Detroit Red Wings (4 years, $19 million)
• Left Winger Mason Marchment – Dallas Stars (4 years, $18 million)
• Defenseman Markus Nutivaara – San Jose Sharks (1 year, $1.5 million)
• Center/Winger Noel Acciari – St. Louis Blues (1 year, $1.25 million)
• Defenseman Robert Hagg – Detroit (1 year, $800,000)
• Defenseman Chase Priskie – Buffalo Sabres (1 year, $800,000)

A couple of other notable depth players that are still on the open market as of this article are goalie Jonas Johansson and center Joe Thornton.

Thornton remains unsigned as we are still waiting to see if he’ll return to the NHL for another year. Defenseman Petteri Lindbohm and forward Maxim Mamin also left to join clubs in Sweden and Russia, respectively.

However, even with the number of players that Florida lost, they were able to accumulate a collection of others to fill depth needs on the roster that became open with the aforementioned departures.

The Panthers were somewhat busy during the first day of free agency. Although they had to let key guys go, they brought in some veterans to increase the overall depth of the roster.

Organizational depth was fine for Florida last year but it wasn’t as strong as other teams, especially the Lightning. So, Bill Zito did a good job at actually covering one of the few areas that needed to be addressed:

• Defenseman Marc Staal (1 year, $750,000)
• Defenseman Michael Del Zotto (1 year, 2-way, $750,000)
• Center Chris Tierney (1 year, 2-way, $750,000)
• Center Colin White (1 year, $1.2 million)
• Center Nick Cousins (2 years, $1.1 million)
• Left winger Rudolfs Balcers (1 year, $750,000)

The team in the sunshine state also was able to come to terms with more depth pieces such as Gerald Mayhew, Alex Lyon, and Anthony Bitetto. It is also interesting to note that the team signed Eric Staal and Andrew Hammond to PTO deals.

Eetu Luostarinen, Aleksi Heponiemi, Lucas Carlsson, and Henry Bowlby were given extensions to stay in Florida. Luostarinen established himself as a center who can play in a bottom-six role. He could mostly play fourth-line minutes and did that throughout last season.

The same thing can be said about Carlsson. The 25-year-old defenseman was a solid contributor to Florida’s defense. He can fill the lineup and play bottom pair minutes. He has a nice shot and is capable in his own zone. He has the ability to block shots and can be physical.

Bowlby and Heponiemi are some of the team’s better prospects in the farm system. I can see Heponiemi making the opening night roster and filling a need on the third line right wing. It would be nice since Anthony Duclair’s injury leaves a spot in the lineup open.

In terms of what they added to the team through free agency, Bill Zito did a good job regaining some of the depth he lost.

As far as the two defensemen are concerned, I love the moves. Getting Staal and Del Zotto are going to be great helps for the defense core. Both bring tons of poise and experience to the locker room, especially when it comes to playoff experience.

The veteran leadership will be there, and it will be a huge asset, even to guys like Aaron Ekblad, who doesn’t know too much about playing in the playoffs. For a team still loaded with offensive firepower, guys who can be defensive specialists are something that this team needs.

The defense wasn’t bad last year but it could get better. To add two guys, especially Staal, who’s an extremely smart player and has been one of the best defensive-minded defensemen in the league since he entered, is an improvement.

He has never won a Stanley Cup in his career, and this could be his last chance to do so. I could see him being an everyday player on the bottom pair for the Panthers.

Del Zotto can be the team’s seventh defenseman in the lineup. I don’t expect him to play on a consistent basis but he’ll be a nice option if an injury happens.

The notable forwards Florida signed are primarily centers. Chris Tierney, Nick Cousins, and Colin White come over on cheap deals. Once again, these are moves that aren’t game-changing. However, it does strengthen the overall depth of the team and these three guys are versatile.

That tag applies a lot to Cousins, as he can play both the wing and center. Some of these guys aren’t going to be in the lineup on a consistent basis but can pitch in and contribute when needed.

The one outlier of this group is left winger Rudolfs Balcers. Balcers is coming over from San Jose. He is still very early into his career and could become another gem that Bill Zito finds on a cheap deal.

He never really got much of an opportunity to play with the Sharks until last season, where he posted 11 goals and 12 assists for 23 points in 61 games. There are some people, including myself, that see him becoming a breakout player for Florida this season.

He can be another Cater Verhaeghe in this instance. He has the potential to blossom and become another weapon in the forward group for Florida.

Other than the collection of signings the Panthers made, people didn’t expect them to do anything else that would be regarded as significant. However, on July 22, that thought went out the window.

In an unexpected turn of events, Florida acquired a young superstar from the Calgary Flames: Matthew Tkachuk.

Tkachuk had made it public that he would not resign with the Flames after his contract expired. This forced the team in Alberta to make a move and get some assets in return for him.

Calgary ended up getting a haul that included two big-name players, a prospect, and a conditional first-round pick. The terms of the deal are listed down below.

The Panthers were on a list of potential teams that Tkachuk wanted to go to, however, I don’t think anyone, including myself, expected this to transpire.

This is a huge risk for Bill Zito and company. As stated at the top, the Panthers lost once again to the Lightning in the playoffs, so I’m sure he felt he needed to make a move of this magnitude.

Luckily for him and the rest of the franchise, this not only makes sense financially but from a long-term, team-building perspective. The 2022-23 season was the last year for MacKenzie Weegar and more importantly Jonathan Huberdeau, under their current contracts.

It was uncertain if both were going to stay in the Sunshine State, as both were approaching unrestricted free agency. Huberdeau was nearing age 30, and while he posted the best season of his career, his future production remains uncertain.

He was going to ask for a luscious some of money and a long contract. It would be a huge risk for Zito to put down the kind of money on Huberdeau that he eventually got when he resigned with the Flames.

Most players usually dip in production starting at some point in their 30s, and that could happen with Huberdeau.

When it comes to Weegar, he has proven to be a solid player that can put up points from the back end. He can also be a good quarterback on a power play unit, as he has good passing and puck handling skills.

However, when it comes to his hockey IQ, it certainly can disappear at moments. He has been prone to committing turnovers in his own zone and can miss assignments defensively. That was one of the main reasons the Panthers had a disappointing playoff exit last year.

In the series against Washington, he gave away the puck on his own blue line with errant passes that led to Capitals goals.

He made another bad mistake in game 2 against the Lightning in the second round. With the game tied, he left Ross Colton all alone in front of the net. This resulted in a Lightning goal with four seconds left to win the game.

Is he an awful player? Absolutely not. However, his faults are apparent to the people that watch him closely. Zito trading him and bringing in Marc Staal to fill out the defensive pairings makes them a smarter team. The smarter a team is, the more chances they have to win crucial games.

Cole Schwindt is an interesting prospect that stands at 6 feet and 2 inches. He could develop into a promising and capable forward in the NHL. The knock on him is his ability to be an efficient skater.