Keys to the Florida Panthers offseason
Greg Wyshynski and Chris Peters: Looking at the keys to the Florida Panthers offseason.
The future of head coach Bob Boughner: The Panthers have played over .500 since the All-Star break which may help keep Boughner’s job into next season. Could Joel Quenneville be lured down to Florida by his former GM?
Figure out their goaltending situation: 40-year old Roberto Luongo has three years left a $4.533 million cap hit. His salary drops to $1.618 next year. The Panthers and Canucks would have cap recapture penalties if he retires. He could go the LTIR route. James Reimer has two years left at $3.4 million.
Will the Panthers be able to sign Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky: There are many who think both Panarin and Bobrovsky will land in Florida. Would cost a lot, but the Panthers have cleared some salary out and could still move Mike Hoffman.
Panthers will look to make a splash
Chris Nichols of Nichols on Hockey: Pierre LeBrun on TSN 690 on the Florida Panthers and how important this upcoming offseason is for them. Their owner may be becoming a little frustrated. They seem to be missing something.
“So what’s going to happen this summer is they’re going to try to make quite a splash. They’re going to go after Panarin. They’re going to go after Bobrovsky. If that fails, they’re going to try to make trades. They want to shake things up. They want to be an ‘it’ team.”
LeBrun notes the Panthers have only made the playoffs five times in 25 years. They will try to make some things happen this offseason.
Panthers need help on their blueline
Ken Campbell of The Hockey News: The Florida Panthers have defensive issues and they haven’t received good goaltending.
They’ve been linked to Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky, but they should be focusing on defensemen.
Winnipeg Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba has a year left on his deal but indications are he could be gone at the draft this year.
Panthers ownership has given GM Dale Tallon the go-ahead to spend
“We’ve got to be better defensively and that’s our goal,” Tallon said. “We have to be better in our own end, that’s basically our issue. We’ve made moves throughout the year to free up some space and we’re going to be a cap team and we’re going to be aggressive in the off-season.”
There is basically zero chance the Panthers could sign pending UFA Erik Karlsson. Jake Gardiner may not fit what they need. Alex Edler will likely re-sign with the Vancouver Canucks. Would Tyler Myers be a fit?