Florida Panthers team preview: Can they become a dynasty?

After three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances and two consecutive championships, the Florida Panthers return without any major changes, and a core of players that are all locked in to multi-year contracts. As the salary cap rises in the next few years, this could end up being a big advantage for the team when it seeks out depth and other talent to play at the edges of the roster.

But before we get that far, this year’s Panthers have a serious salary cap question. When Matthew Tkachuk returns to action this regular season and comes off LTIR, how are they going to get under the cap? Presently, the team would be $4.5 million over with a healthy Tkachuk.

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Ah, but those are concerns for another day. For now, Florida is feeling like it could do something that hasn’t been done since the 1980s and win three straight Stanley Cups. That may be a lot to ask, but since there wasn’t much in the way of needle-moving UFAs this past summer, and a slow trade market, none of their challengers in the Eastern Conference took a big step forward.

We know what the Panthers are: skilled, mean, relentless and calculated. Their weaknesses are minor, their reputation gritty. They come back as the clear team to beat in the NHL this season and have dynasty on the brain.

We continue our look at each of the NHL’s 32 teams over 32 days with the pain-in-the-butt Panthers.

Newcomer to watch: Jeff Petry

The Panthers have had success squeezing the most out of defencemen who arrive with low expectations, whether as a cast-off or someone later in their career whose best years seemed behind them. Two examples of this are Gustav Forsling, a waiver pickup who is now one of the better shutdown defencemen in the league and earned a long-term contract, and Nate Schmidt, who fizzled out in Winnipeg but played a key depth role on Florida’s blue line, earned power play time, and scored 12 points in the Cup run. This year, Jeff Petry figures to settle into that role after signing a one-year, $775,000 contract. Turning 38 in December, Petry is years past his peak and coming off a season in which injuries limited him to 44 games. His production is far from what it used to be, but the Panthers filled in their depth with a veteran who can perhaps bring some small offensive upside still. If he fits into the system, Petry could be a minor surprise.

With an expensive core locked in (and some difficult cap questions to answer later this season), the Panthers need someone with a cheaper contract to be a reliable contributor as well. This is where Samoskevich, the 24th overall pick of the 2021 draft who scored 15 goals as an NHL rookie last season, comes in. He only got into four playoff games, but don’t be surprised if his role grows this season, especially in the first half when Tkachuk is out. An opportunity is there for Samoskevich to take. If Brad Marchand sticks to the third line — and why not after the playoff success that trio had — Samoskevich could play his way into a top-six role by October. At 5-on-5 in the regular season last year, Samoskevich finished third in goals per 60 minutes among all full-time Panthers players. In 2023-24, he led their AHL team in scoring.

Top Prospect: Jack Devine

The Panthers’ prospect pool is rather thin these days, but Devine is probably their top player in the pipeline despite being a seventh-round pick from 2022. He played all four years of college and chose to sign with the Panthers anyway, when he could have looked for more opportunity elsewhere as a free agent. He joined the AHL Charlotte Checkers last year after his NCAA career ended, and contributed two goals and five points in seven playoff appearances. There is not a lot of room for younger players to claim a spot on this year’s Panthers roster, and Devine is not ready for that yet anyway, still something of a project. The right winger will likely spend this whole upcoming season in the AHL, where we’ll start to get a better idea if he has long-term NHL potential.

The Panthers re-signed each of Aaron Ekblad, Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand before any of them hit free agency this past summer, even after it looked impossible to fit them all in. Florida has 10 core players who are signed through at least the next five years now and it aims to compete for the Cup throughout that window. However, goalie Sergei Bobrovsky will turn 37 years old later this month and he will also need a contract extension at the end of this season. Signing him in the first place to a $10 million AAV was seen as a somewhat risky decision to allocate so much cap space to a goalie, but it’s paid off. Through most of that time, the Panthers had up-and-coming Spencer Knight waiting to one day take over after Bobrovsky retired or moved on, but GM Bill Zito traded Knight to Chicago last year. There is no safety net now; 26-year-old Daniil Tarasov is the backup, but not likely a long-term No. 1 replacement. Term and dollars will be the challenge to figure out if Bobrovsky signs an extension. How much do you pay an ageing goalie who has been stellar in winning back-to-back Stanley Cups, knowing very well that the end is not that far off?

2. How will they manage their salary cap?

The Panthers might have the most difficult cap situation to monitor this season and it’s completely of their own doing. Yes they were able to keep all of their most important UFAs and, yes, they’ll get under the cap for the start of the season when Matthew Tkachuk is put on LTIR. But the expectation is that Tkachuk will return in time to play in the Olympics at least, so when his cap hit is put back on the books, Florida stands to be about $4.5 million over the limit. Some of that total can be shaved down by waiving two end-of-the-bench forwards, but even after that, the Panthers would be a few million dollars over. Evan Rodrigues’ name is one to watch for trade potential, as his $3 million AAV is exactly what Florida would need to cut to become cap compliant, but he is a beloved player among the group and has been a playoff contributor. Unless another injury (or two) comes up and allows Florida to live in LTIR all season, it will have to move someone notable off this roster.

It is so hard to reach three straight Stanley Cup Finals, but four? The last team to do that was the 1980s New York Islanders, who reached five straight finals. The toughness and skill Florida so excellently combines did have some commentators comparing their style to that of those Islanders teams during last season’s playoff run, but this much hockey takes a toll on the body. This is also an Olympic year, and the Panthers are likely to have a number of players representing their country in Italy for a couple of weeks. Three appearances and two straight championships are not a “dynasty,” but if they win it again, then we can start talking about them being just that.