FLORIDA PANTHERS
COACH: Paul Maurice, second season. (817-712-99 over 26 seasons)
SEASON OPENER: Oct. 12 at Minnesota.
DEPARTURES: F Anthony Duclair, F Eric Staal, D Marc Staal, D Radko Gudas, G Alex Lyon.
ADDITIONS: D Oliver Ekman-Larsson, D Dmitry Kulikov, F Steven Lorentz, D Niko Mottola, G Anthony Stolarz.
GOALIES: Sergei Bobrovsky (24-20-3, 3.07 GAA, 0.901 save percentage) and Spencer Knight (9-8-3, 3.18, 0.901).
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK STANLEY CUP ODDS: 20-1.
LAST SEASON: Matthew Tkachuk's first season with the Panthers was a resounding success. They were the last team to make the Eastern Conference playoffs and almost were the last team standing in the NHL, after ousting Boston — the best regular-season team in league history — followed by Toronto and Carolina in what became the Panthers' first run to the Stanley Cup Final since 1996. Year 2 of the Paul Maurice era brings stability, and there's an understanding of the systems that he needed much of the year to install last season.
STRENGTHS: Tkachuk doesn't even think he's entering his prime yet, which is a delightful sentiment for Florida and probably a frightening one for every other club. Including the playoffs, he finished his first Florida season with 133 points and 197 penalty minutes — only the second player in NHL history to post such numbers in a season (Kevin Stevens, 1991-92). Aleksander Barkov is still one of the most underappreciated stars in the game, and Sergei Bobrovsky's scintillating playoff run shows he still can be one of the best goalies in the NHL.
WEAKNESSES: Injuries are already a problem and the Panthers haven't played a real game yet. Florida knew when last season ended that several players — most notably defensemen Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad — would miss lots of time to start this season because of what they played through during last season's playoffs. Montour and Ekblad are both recovering from shoulder surgeries and could be back sometime around mid-December, but Florida will be about 30 games into the season by then.
WHAT TO EXPECT: A core that features Tkachuk, Barkov, Carter Verhaeghe and Bobrovsky is going to be good enough to compete. But the Atlantic Division is brutal and could be the NHL's best. Nobody — not even the Panthers — thinks it will be easy to get back into the playoffs. But the lesson from last year has to be that every game counts, and that it's incredibly hard to get into the postseason when there are pronounced regular-season slides.
PLAYER TO WATCH: Bobrovsky. Playoff Bob was a sight to behold last spring; he wasn't the reason why Florida didn't win the Cup. If he can bring flashes of that to the regular season, it will take pressure off the scoring lines. But Bobrovsky is also going to have new defensemen in front of him, and that's going to take some time to adjust to.
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