Florida Panthers: The Quest To Repeat

Florida Panthers in preseason action. Source: Florida Panthers (twitter/X)

 The Florida Panthers are the reigning Stanley Cup champions and head into this season eyeing a repeat. They have all the pieces in place to do so and it makes this season an interesting one for them.

Everything You Need To Know

• The star players who lead the Panthers not only create offense but also defend. Aleksander Barkov won the Selke Trophy as the best defensive forward in the game while Matthew Tkachuk adds a forechecking presence on the wing. It’s why they have a great group in place to repeat.
• Goaltending is a wild card for this team. They have Sergei Bobrovsky but the question is if they have a reliable backup. Chris Dreiger was brought in and Spencer Knight could make the leap to the NHL but both are question marks.
• The defensive unit is one of the best in the game but they’ll have to replace Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Montour was one of their best two-way defensemen while Ekman-Larsson was a shutdown skater on his own end. Those are tough players to replace.

Projection

The Panthers will be one of the best teams in the Atlantic Division and possibly the Eastern Conference. Yes, they are missing some pieces for a Cup run but they don’t have any glaring weakness and it makes them the favorites to win their division.