What The Hell Has Happened To The Florida Panthers?

[jonlin]

Barkov is having an off year(mainly due to a child custody battle)

This is probably the reason Barkov plays so poorly when not injured. How on earth do theese millionnaires go dipping without protection?

 

[Dr Beinfest]

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.

Loss of Giroux, Chiarot, Vatrano, and Acciari?

Chiarot was terrible. The Panthers were already in the driver’s seat for the president’s trophy prior to the arrival of Chiarot and Giroux. Vatrano did not click into the system that was otherwise firing on all cylinders so much so to a point where he was a healthy scratch in something like three quarters of the games leading up to his trade. Acciari missed most of the season with injury and was generally a non-factor in his role.

Huberdeau… I mean I guess? Tkachuck as his replacement is just as good. You can try to say it’s Tkachuck who is ruining chemistry or something? Tough to characterize.

Now the loss of Duclair, Marchment, and Weegar are all valid. But my money says Duclair will come back and absolutely stink it up in Maurice’s system.

This is what appears to be a shitty coach who has lost his players, a mild roster drop off, injuries, and all of those things together expose our Bob problem. He looked okay last year because the other team was consistently playing from behind and at threat of conceding more. But ge sucks.

 

[ColbyChaos]

Paul Maurice sucks and is an overrated coach. They dismissed the coach that got them the presidents trophy for a guy whos done nothing but coach an underperforming Winnipeg team which resulted in them missing their window of contention completely.

 

[Sky04]

Tampa broke Barkov

 

[Dread Clawz]

Tampa broke Barkov

You live in an alternate reality.

 

[mriswith]

WPG's resurgence and FLA's instant decline happening at the same time makes you wonder...

 

[Sky04]

You live in an alternate reality.

Sorry your team is so mentally weak they regressed so much after being swept. Barkov in particular after being dominated last playoffs.

 

[Dread Clawz]

Sorry your team is so mentally weak they regressed so much after being swept. Barkov in particular after being dominated last playoffs.

Yeah, except that's not what happened. But you do you.

 

[Sky04]

Yeah, except that's not what happened. But you do you.

It's exactly what happened but keep making excuses.

 

[Knight53]

A down year with how strong the 2023 draft is, isn’t a bad thing. Add a blue chipper and bounce back next year.

 

[Dread Clawz]

It's exactly what happened but keep making excuses.

View attachment 626510

What the hell are you talking about? Do you seriously believe what you post? That's scary.

Yes, I realize TB swept Florida in May lol. But they didn't break them. That's a ludicrous viewpoint. Just keep ignoring that the Panthers are top 5 in xGF and at one point were #1. If Barkov was having a normal season and Bob didn't start out cold, the Panthers are right there with Washington and the Islanders for the last wildcard spot. That's with the blueline and depth in general downgraded due to the Yandle buyout and other cap constraints. Next offseason, they will have 7.7M to upgrade the blueline. Even more if they want to. They will be back to being a force pretty soon.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Well, I don't know about the cat, but I sure am enjoying it.

If that team had 9 lives they just spent em’ all…

 

[Sky04]

What the hell are you talking about? Do you seriously believe what you post? That's scary.

Yes, I realize TB swept Florida in May lol. But they didn't break them. That's a ludicrous viewpoint. Just keep ignoring that the Panthers are top 5 in xGF and at one point were #1. If Barkov was having a normal season and Bob didn't start out cold, the Panthers are right there with Washington and the Islanders for the last wildcard spot. That's with the blueline and depth in general downgraded due to the Yandle buyout and other cap constraints. Next offseason, they will have 7.7M to upgrade the blueline. Even more if they want to. They will be back to being a force pretty soon.

"A force" loool a force of early round exits and disappointing Barkov playoff performances sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

 

[jonlin]

A down year with how strong the 2023 draft is, isn’t a bad thing. Add a blue chipper and bounce back next year.

Panthers cleverly traded their 1st to Montreal for Ben Chiarot... Their next 1st is in 2026...

 

[Dread Clawz]

"A force" loool a force of early round exits and disappointing Barkov playoff performances sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Oh, now you can see the future too? Wow you really are a special person for sure. It's scary that people like you exist.

 

[Mogo]

WPG's resurgence and FLA's instant decline happening at the same time makes you wonder...

Ah yes. Losing 1/3 of your team in the off season makes no difference

 

[serp]

Maurice is not that good of a coach. He has by far the worst winning % of all the longtime NHL coaches and as a matter of fact has lost more NHL games as a coach than anyone else in NHL history.

To make matters worse he underarchived massively with the Jets in the last couple if season.

No idea with all the coaching hires in the summer how the Panthers landed on Maurice ?

Couple a new at best mediocre coach with signficant roster turnover and injuries and you have a recipe for a shitty season.

 

[Dr Beinfest]

Sorry your team is so mentally weak they regressed so much after being swept. Barkov in particular after being dominated last playoffs.

Strangely narcissistic-by-proxy post to imagine your team is oh so mentally powerful. Barkov doesn’t go to sleep at night wondering about the Tampa Bay Lightning. Nobody does. That’s not how hockey works and that’s not how people work.

 

[Legend123]

Habs will get Bedard from Chariot.

Never did I think back when we signed that bum 5 years or so ago, we would turn him into a generational talent. Here's hoping thats exactly what happens

 

[Colezuki]

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.

I said exactly this in the summer and panthers fans said I was a moron. Feeling vindicated about 35 games in.

It all boils down to three key issues,
The cap situation
Tkachuk for huberdeau and weegs
And the injuries
With a sprinkle of pomo

From a cap perspective this was the messiest year florida will have for quite a while. The darling and Yandle buyouts spike to $6M from 2M. They also resigned barkov, giving him a 4m raise and had hornqvist Still eating like $4-5M as well but being clearly in the downhill part of his career. What’s important though is that this basically meant that they needed to play this year without 10% of the same cap as everyone else. Then

Tkachuk for huberdeau and weegs in isolation is a fantastic trade for Florida, Long term. Short term however Huberdeau and weegar would have been making less the tkachuk is this season. In the long run tkachuk will be the better player but for this season this makes their messed up cap situation even messier as they now lose a top 4 D as well and replace him with Marc staal.

All of them could still be overcome, we see it every year where teams with great top talent find a way but later on the injuries with no depth to cover it up and it’s a fire storm.

I’m still quite bullish on the panthers long term and will see next season them come rolling when they can rebuild the D and add a depth forward again but I want to add another caveat now. Last summer I said I expected the panthers pick had as much of a chance to be 10-15 as it did to be 20+. If the injuries continue and it doesn’t get better this season there is a real chance that pick could win the lottery. If the panthers have given the habs a bedard or fantilli with their pick within two years it shifts the balance of power in the Atlantic pretty drastically and the cats could be facing a division with Buffalo, Montreal, Detroit, Ottawa all who are on the rise and Toronto, tampa who don’t look like there getting worse.

 

[Dread Clawz]

Strangely narcissistic-by-proxy post to imagine your team is oh so mentally powerful. Barkov doesn’t go to sleep at night wondering about the Tampa Bay Lightning. Nobody does. That’s not how hockey works and that’s not how people work.

Leave him alone. He's special.

 

[blankall]

Panthers cleverly traded their 1st to Montreal for Ben Chiarot... Their next 1st is in 2026...

Shaking things up as much as Florida did after going all in on a President's trophy winning team, is very very odd.

Even if Huberdeau isn't what he was promised to be for the Flames, in Florida he was breaking offensive records. It also sounded like he wanted to stay and likely would have worked out a much friendlier deal than what the Flames paid.

Florida had a winning formula in place should have run it into the ground.

 

[jonlin]

Shaking things up as much as Florida did after going all in on a President's trophy winning team, is very very odd.

Even if Huberdeau isn't what he was promised to be for the Flames, in Florida he was breaking offensive records. It also sounded like he wanted to stay and likely would have worked out a much friendlier deal than what the Flames paid.

Florida had a winning formula in place should have run it into the ground.

I suppose ownership pushed the panic-button after 28pp without a goal in the playoffs. I for sure think Brunette failed in the playoffs, but also their management did poor deadline-adds and paid a premium for them. Weegar was/is bad at defending. He is essentially a Klingberg 2.0. Huberdeau could have wanted too much. Panthers just have to wait for Yandles 4M, Hornqvist 5.3M, Staalx2 1,5M and Gudas 2.5M to go off the payroll next summer. They can build on Barkov, Tkachuk, Lundell and Knight. Bobcop still has 4yrs on that albatross. Panthers can only hope to catch a few reliable stay-at-home D:s or trade for some. I`d use Verhaeghe, Duclair and Bennett as trade-chips personnally next deadline. I think there will be takers for theese guys. Panthers is going nowhere this year.

 

[Rob Sense]

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.

This is what could happen with the 2023 pick...

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

The Panthers will come back strong and finish in the playoffs

/anti-jinx