The Florida Panthers had their most profitable season of their 29-year historical past, however they’re nonetheless left with a bitter style of their mouth after a disappointing second-round displaying in opposition to the Tampa Bay Lightning that noticed them get swept.
It gained’t be any simpler for them within the offseason, both. They have simply over $3 million in cap area, because of the extensions of Alexander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe kicking in, in addition to an $5 million-plus cap hit from Keith Yandle’s buyout subsequent season. They simply sacrificed a whole lot of their draft capital and prospect pool to get Claude Giroux and Ben Chiarot on the deadline, so no inner assistance is on the way in which. They even have to fret about an extension for main scorer Jonathan Huberdeau, who will certainly need one thing within the vary of Barkov’s $10 million AAV.
Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna continued the Down and Out sequence speaking concerning the Florida Panthers and what their largest precedence this offseason must be.
Mike McKenna: “[Jonathan Huberdeau] is No. 1, and I believe the teaching selections are going to be massive. We simply want some readability right here. Not us as media members, however Brunette’s acquired to fill a employees, he wants some assistant coaches. I talked to a longtime assistant coach final week, who mentioned, ‘I don’t have something, I don’t know what’s happening right here.’ This is the precise sort of state of affairs the place I believe there’s lots of people ready to see, and coaches need to get employed as quickly as they’ll to allow them to get settled. And you need to get the highest expertise, in order that’s at first.
“And then you have to decide like, Barkov, Huberdeau, Bobrovsky, are you going to have three guys over $10 million on your roster? That’s realistic. So you have to start looking at pairing money down somewhere, and Hornqvist’s deal at $5.3 million really stands out. Can you really live with that if you’re Bill Zito? You’re going to have to create cap flexibility somehow, because they have solely 5 NHL defensemen on one-way contracts, and that’s an space that wants gamers. They want D. So, I’m not satisfied that that is going to be a easy offseason for the Panthers. I believe they could have to maneuver out some items to create some area.
“And I look at the pieces they’d like to bring back. Mason Marchment, I don’t think he’s going to be too expensive, but that guy, when he came out of the lineup for the Panthers, I thought it sure changed for them in the playoffs. I thought he was awesome.
“And the most important factor is that they’ve acquired to have a greater energy play. We’ve seen this proper? The energy play was horrible within the playoffs; they couldn’t rating. Probably a cause why MacKenzie and Samuelsson left, I’m guessing, in order that’s clearly an space for concern.
“But I don’t see how they run it again with three gamers on these massive contracts. And I don’t the way you do away with Bobrovsky’s, as a result of that’s the one you’d look to do away with.”
Frank Seravalli: “Yeah, I was going to say, let me throw my hot-take mitt on for a second, and ask you this question? Would you consider trading Spencer Knight, given that he’s such a valuable piece, and that you probably won’t be able to trade Bobrovsky, if you’re trying to make your team better while Bobrovsky’s locked in for the next number of years?”
Mike McKenna: “It’s a catch-22, but no, I wouldn’t trade Spencer Knight. My reasoning for that, and I talked about it yesterday: Nobody’s won a Stanley Cup in forever without homegrown talent. You need young goaltenders who you can have, who can develop within, who you can be there for 10 years, who are going to win you a Cup. If you got to get creative with Bobrovsky’s deal down the road, you got to do that somehow, but I would be very hesitant to get rid of Spencer Knight.”
You can watch the complete episode right here…
Down and Out: How do the Florida Panthers navigate the cap crunch?
Source: Panapanahon News
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