What The Hell Has Happened To The Florida Panthers?

[VivaLasVegas]

I'm more surprised that people didn't see this coming. Traded away all their futures, lost a shit ton of core pieces and depth guys. Said it at the start of the year, they are done for the next 2-3 years. They don't have any assets available to add to this core, and the current group isn't good enough to be a contender. They went all in and failed, no 1st til 2026. Their 1st this year might be Bedard, could end up being the worst trade in NHL history, no exaggeration.

Zito should've been fired in the off-season. Paid a premium for Giroux, Chiarot (lol) both walked in FA. Marchment gone, got absolutely bent over on the Huberdeau deal. Traded an elite winger + top pair D, + , for Tkachuk.

Yeppers, management violated the "First do no harm" rule, by doing a whole lot of self-inflicted harm.

 

[BKarchitect]

Off years from their tentpole players (Barkov and Ekblad) isn’t helping. Not sure how people can call Tkachuk the problem. Barkov is an all-world player but I’m not sure he has that alpha mentality when it matters most. I’ve always had big concerns about Ekblad’s foot speed although the guy is a beast. I think a lot of it is chemistry. Not saying either is the problem of course - they just haven’t stepped up (and of course Ekblad has been dealing with injury issues).

The Panthers knew they were taking a short-term hit on depth for long-term flexibility. What I don’t think they counted on was their two biggest stars having off years - combined with a typical uninspired re-tread coach hire.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

If Tkachuk is getting $9.5m this year, what's the alternative? Huberdeau and Weegar take up just about that much. And in the long run, Tkachuk is the better investment than Huberdeau and Weegar.

Lose a lot of depth due to free agency/trades and injury, while also obviously and forever being stuck with the Bob contract, and things won't always work. It's amazing they even had last year though. Did anyone in their right mind have Reinhart as an 80pt player? Of course not.

The alternative is DON'T trade your MVP Candidate and your top pair d man man along with a 1st for Tkachuk because now Ekblad is hurt and the defense couldn't be more f***ed.

The alternative is don't do a stupid thing.

They chose to to do a stupid thing

 

[Dread Clawz]

Basing your offense on scoring rush goals by cheating up the ice isn't a reliable way to win in the playoffs either. They were never anywhere near as good as their record last year.

Yup, that's why Maurice is weening them off of a rush offense.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

I'm more surprised that people didn't see this coming. Traded away all their futures, lost a shit ton of core pieces and depth guys. Said it at the start of the year, they are done for the next 2-3 years. They don't have any assets available to add to this core, and the current group isn't good enough to be a contender. They went all in and failed, no 1st til 2026. Their 1st this year might be Bedard, could end up being the worst trade in NHL history, no exaggeration.

Zito should've been fired in the off-season. Paid a premium for Giroux, Chiarot (lol) both walked in FA. Marchment gone, got absolutely bent over on the Huberdeau deal. Traded an elite winger + top pair D, + , for Tkachuk.

Some of us did, I called it months ago

They led the league in comeback wins last year with 29 (unsustainable), their already bad defense got worse, they hired an awful coach, play Eric Staal + Marc Staal a lot of minutes, goaltending is inconsistent

All signs point to regression. Didn't expect it to be this bad, though

This isn't regression, this is different, this is more than that.

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

Paul Maurice is the definition of selling your soul to coach the most NHL games in history.

The payoff is he'll never win.

 

[Stephen]

With the loss of Huberdeau, Weegar, Giroux, Marchment, Chiarot, Vatrano, Acciari, the Duclair injury, I would suggest this is a case of subtraction by subtraction.

 

[Stephen]

Paul Maurice is the definition of selling your soul to coach the most NHL games in history.

The payoff is he'll never win.

Urgh, Paul Maurice. The guy is like a post game press conference champion, comes in with the frazzled, philosophical schtick, verbose everything. Never liked him in Toronto.

 

[KingsFan7824]

The alternative is DON'T trade your MVP Candidate and your top pair d man man along with a 1st for Tkachuk because now Ekblad is hurt and the defense couldn't be more f***ed.

The alternative is don't do a stupid thing.

They chose to to do a stupid thing

But giving $17m to Huberdeau and Weegar after this year isn't going to help them either.

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

But giving $17m to Huberdeau and Weegar after this year isn't going to help them either.

Rule #1: Only make AHL trades.

Works for Ken Holland (Oilers GM).

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

They've come back down to earth this season, that's what happened.

 

[rahad]

Better in the long run than if they resigned Huberdeau and let Weegar walk for nothing.

What are you talking about lol... What long run? They don't even have the 2023 first round pick. They also traded the 2025 draft pick.

 

[Hunter368]

PMO

Jets fans have said fire him for a few years, finally he's gone and Jets dramatically improved with a real coach with real systems. The players on the Jets even called out the coaches for the lack of systems and poor systems.

 

[Alwalys]

Thornton was the glue.

 

[Master P]

Strippers

 

[FrolikFan67]

We lost Marchment, Giroux/Tippett, and Duclair due to internal salary raises (Barkov and Verhaeghe), if Hornqvist is out for the season then at least we’ll be able to fit Duclair in. But either way, he’s been out the entire season so far.

Barkov has been injured, sick, or when he has been playing has not been good enough. Shooting 7% and only 6 goals.

Bennett also not playing up to standards, has 7 goals with 7% shooting, has had time as the 1st center with Barkov out yet has scored in one game in the past 20.

Lundell has 4 goals and is rarely ever a threat when he’s on the ice this season. Losing Marchment on his line didn’t help.

Reinhart started crazy snakebitten but has worked his way back up.

Verhaeghe and tkachuk have been great. But the tkachuk trade came in a season too early as he was due a contract while Huberdeau had one year left on his cheap deal. No one expected that opportunity to pop up and had to jump on it when the chance was there.

Ekblad’s been injured or bad as well when playing. No replacement for Weegar, and while I’m not heartbroken giving him up, not having a replacement is rough as Marc staal is a #6 at best. Forsling, montour, and Mahura have been great. Gudas has been out the past several games.

Bob and knight both have been rough and inconsistent and knight just came back from illness.

Maurice has a different style but between the lost depth vs last year, the injuries and illness hitting the team, and players not playing up to their standards, it’s been a whirlwind of bad situations all hitting at once.

 

[Habsrule]

Last year pretty much every player on their team had a career season. You have to wonder if that is their new normal or if some players will bounce back to their regular seasons.

 

[Dread Clawz]

Thornton was the glue.

That's an underrated reason, too. Also Hornqvist is on LTIR with a concussion. They miss him in that room. Those two were the defacto captains last season.

 

[Dread Clawz]

What are you talking about lol... What long run? They don't even have the 2023 first round pick. They also traded the 2025 draft pick.

Lundell-21 years old
Knight-21
Tkachuk-25
Ekblad-26
Forsling-26
Bennett-26
Barkov-27
Verhaeghe-27
Reinhart-27

They're gonna be good for a long time. Add in the fact they will probably sign at least one top 27 year old D in free agency next summer. All their top players are either in or just entering their primes. Knight hasn't even entered his yet, and he's still doing very well for a 21 year old goalie.

 

[Jets]

 

[trentmccleary]

They went all in last year.
The Tkachuk trade cost the depth, but made the core younger.
They have nearly $12 million in wasted space this year in Yandle, Darling and Hornqvist. That drops to $1 million next year.

I see it as short term pain, but they reset their window of contention a bit.

 

[Baby Punisher]

Last season they had a stellar regular season record and were the highest-scoring team in decades. Now they're under .500 heading into Christmas.

Yes, they lost Huberdeau, but they acquired Tkachuk and he's been better this season (although probably not as good as Huberdeau was last season). They've also lost Weegar and Marchment. I don't think these subtractions alone explain their immense drop-off, however.

What's wrong?

What's wrong? Jagr retired.

 

[Bruce Granville]

There isn‘t a team in the world that survives PoMo.
Injuries happen, trades happen, goaltending happens.

But look at what happened in Winnipeg…
Maurice could coach Team Canada and he wouldn‘t win a medal.

 

[Dread Clawz]

There isn‘t a team in the world that survives PoMo.
Injuries happen, trades happen, goaltending happens.

But look at what happened in Winnipeg…
Maurice could coach Team Canada and he wouldn‘t win a medal.

He's not the problem. At least not a main one. At one point, they could only carry 20 players on the roster, and in one game, 10 forwards because of their cap problems.

Pomo didn't cause Barkov to go into a depression because of a child custody battle with his ex. He didn't cause him to get pneumonia. He didn't cause Bob to have nearly a 4.00 gaa and .850sv% after like 10 games. He didn't cause a non-covid illness to spread throughout the room and take out multiple players for several games.

The big one is Barkov. They simply couldn't afford him to have a down season due to their depth taking a hit from cap constraints.

 

[Ratsreign]

Hired a horrible coach and their defense/goaltending sucks. But they are better than their record shows - one of the better five on five teams xgf in the league.

Still don't understand why they fired a young coach who took them to a president's trophy.

Brunette kept what Q started rolling. Possible reasons they moved on from him; FL had to comeback to win so many times last year. Q would hold guys accountable for lax play, I’m not too sure Brunette would. When questioned about slow starts, the answer from Weegar and others was along the lines of, “we know how good we are.” Their confidence was becoming arrogance as the season progressed, and it wasn’t checked by the coach.
In the playoffs, they were kind of fortunate to get past the Caps before TB swept them. They were like 0-for-the playoffs on the PP and Brunette never made any adjustments to it. He never made any kind of adjustments to what the opponent was doing. He was out coached in both series.
Hiring Maurice was a head scratcher, though. I’ve been trying to give him a fair shake, especially with all their injury problem. All the fancy stats say they are much better than the results show, but their play this past week has me wishing they would call Mo a cab.