The Florida Panthers are back in the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight season, marking five consecutive years the Sunshine State has been represented.
Over the past half-decade, it’s been the teams from “non-traditional” hockey markets — the Lightning and Panthers — and not Original Six or Canadian teams (aside from Montreal in 2021 and Edmonton this season) that have hogged the postseason spotlight.
Though the Panthers have yet to win a Cup, that could change in a matter of weeks. And no team has had a recent playoff run to match the Lightning’s charge to three straight Finals (including 11 straight playoff series wins) and back-to-back championships in 2020 and ‘21.
The Panthers’ blueprint is similar to the Lightning’s, emphasizing defense on the ice and a winning culture in the dressing room. Soon, Florida will face some of the same challenges to sustaining its success, competing under a salary cap meant to breed parity.
Forming a winning roster
While the Lightning’s championship squads were built mostly through the draft, few Panthers players can call Florida their original team.
But like the Lightning, the Panthers were able to lock key players into club-friendly contracts. During the abbreviated 2021 season, general manager Bill Zito acquired defenseman Brandon Montour from Anaheim and center Sam Bennett from Calgary. Both were re-signed to multi-season deals that gave the team flexibility during the hard-cap years.
They also were instrumental in the the Panthers’ evolution into arguably the league’s best two-way team. Florida was the best defensive team in the NHL during the regular season (allowing 2.41 goals per game) and has allowed an average of just 2.29 this postseason. Its 5-on-5 for/against was best in the Eastern Conference during the regular season and currently tops all playoff teams.
Captain Aleksander Barkov, one of only three players on the current roster who were drafted by the Panthers, is the cornerstone. The No. 2 overall pick in 2013, Barkov is the game’s best defensive forward, as evidenced by his second Selke Trophy, and sets the tone for the team’s two-way game. He and defenseman Aaron Ekblad, the No. 1 overall pick in 2014, gave the Panthers the foundation of a championship-caliber team,
much like Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman did for the Lightning.
And just as the Lightning found diamonds in the rough in Yanni Gourde and Tyler Johnson, the Panthers took players left off other teams’ rosters and developed them. Defenseman Gustav Forsling, a waiver claim from Carolina in 2021, is now one of the league’s top defensem*n. Former Lightning forward Carter Verhaeghe has emerged as a 70-point scorer and one of the Panthers’ most clutch postseason performers.
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Explore all your optionsBuilding a winning culture
Of course, Florida has off-ice perks that make it a popular destination for players: no state income tax and warm winters. But there’s more that goes into making a team a place where players want to stay.
Winning is paramount and, like the Lightning, the Panthers have had their share of on-ice success since 2021. They won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2022 before the Lightning swept them in the second round of the playoffs.
The addition of head coach Paul Maurice in June 2022 brought a candid and accomplished voice behind the bench, and the trade for Matthew Tkachuk added toughness and belief that the Panthers lacked. Those additions helped put the team over the hump and into the Cup final last season.
Still, postseason success starts in the net, and Sergei Bobrovsky became the goaltender Florida desired when it inked him to a seven-year, $10 million annual average value deal in 2019. He has been Vasilevskiy-like, posting a 2.20 GAA this postseason and 2.58 over the past three.
When you have the faith in your goaltender the Panthers do, players are willing to do whatever it takes to win, especially in the defensive end, whether blocking shots, battling in the corners or putting their bodies on the line.
Sustaining winning
Winning a Cup this season is important for the Panthers, because they soon will face some of the salary-cap hurdles the Lightning did following their Cup runs.
This same group won’t be back together next season, because Florida will have 11 unrestricted free agents and two restricted free agents. It will enter the offseason with only seven forwards under NHL contracts and just under $20 million in cap space.
The Panthers will try to re-sign 57-goal scorer Sam Reinhart, who is due a major raise from his current $6.5 million hit. Montour, who will get a bump from his team-friendly $3.5 million hit, also will be a priority. Middle-six center Anton Lundell, who has blossomed this postseason, can become a restricted free agent.
Keeping the foundation together might be the most difficult part, and the Lightning have done a remarkable job with that. The Panthers are trying to do the same. Both Barkov and Tkachuk are signed through 2029-30. Forsling’s new deal is through 2031-32. But Verhaeghe and Bennett will face free agency after next season.
The advantage the Panthers have over the Lightning is a significant increase in the salary cap, which Tampa Bay didn’t have during the pandemic years. The cap stayed flat at $81.5 million between 2020 and 2022 but is estimated to grow to $92 million next summer. The Lightning also lost a big piece in Gourde in the 2021 expansion draft. There could be another if Arizona secures a new arena deal in the next five years.
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