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Florida Panthers year in review


yave1964

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PRESEASON OUTLOOK: They were around the playoffs just  missing in 2014-15 and with a very exciting young core they hoped to build on it and make the postseason.

 

FINAL RECORD: 47-26-9 103 POINTS won the division, lost in first round to the Islanders.

 

STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR: Jarimir Jagr enjoys home cooking, he had a point per game production in Sunrise (18-23-41) but did not travel well, (9-16-25) when on the road. The Panthers were a wonderful 5 on 5 team finishing a plus 40 at even strength (second, in league, barely behind Washington) but there special teaams were god awful, the power play was 23rd and they were 24th when shorthanded. They were also 17th in faceoff pct. All of this is symptomatic of a young team and should improve.

 

HIGH POINT OF THE SEASON: They came out of the gate for the first few months winning a game then losing one, they sat at 14-12-4 on December 12th, then they caught fire, winning 12 games in a row outscoring their opponents 40-15 in that span, At that point they knew they were contenders. Coach Gerard Gallant sited that in his 'State fo the Team' as the point when they came together and started believing in themselves.

 

LOW POINT OF THE SEASON: None. No really, they won the Division something that has been unheard of in Sunrise, their 103 points were a franchise record, yes they lost in the first round but a3 of the losses were in Overtime so they were in every game. No real low point for this club.

 

WHAT WENT RIGHT: Ageless Jagr (27-39-66) led the team in scoring. Aleksander Barkov led the club with 28 goals and became of the leagues best two way forwards. Ageless Jussi Jokinen (18-42-60) filled in up and down the lines and was brilliant. Luongo was in the Vezina conversation until a late season mini slump, Al Montoya his backup was one of the best backups in the game. Huberdeau (20-39-59) came into his own justifying the teams faith in him. Vincent Trochek came from nowhere to provide offense whenever on the ice and he potted 25 goals. Reilly Smith came from Boston and way outperformed the man he was traded for (25-25-50_ Aaron Ekblad had a sophomore slide but still produced. Dmitri Kulikov and fellow blueliners Alex Petrovic and Erik Gudranson were just plain nasty to play against, hitting everything that moved and blocking shots.

 

WHAT WENT WRONG: Little offense from the defnese, Brian Campbell (6-25-31) and Ekblad were okay but did not lead the way on the power play, hence the teams overall poor results. They overpaid for Hudler and Purcell, two soft players at the deadline. Rugged center Nick Bjugstad battled concussion and other assorted injuries all year and did not really produce much. Really special teams kind of betrayed them this year. Captain Willie Mitchell suffered one concussion too many and will likely hang up the skates.

 

MVP: I give the nod to Bobby Lu who was brilliant most of the season with a shout out to both Barkov and Jagr who were brilliant.

 

FREE AGENTS: Lots of good ones.

Purcell and Hudler, do the Cats overpay to resign them to justify overpaying for trading for them?

Brian Campbell, they are finally out of the woods on his 7 milliam a year contract and he is slipping, do they bring him back at a much smaller cap number or let him go?

Al Montoya was one of the leagues best backups, do they overpay to keep him from going to Calgary or somewhere else?

 

TOP PROSPECTS: Lawson Crouse may make the team as a power forward out of camp and though raw should be a good one. A lot of folk are high on defense prospect Mike Matheson and he should make the team as a fast skating offensive d-man. He seems very raw at the pro level but the Cats really need his style of game to blend in with the young turks on the back end. Rocco Grimaldi and Connor Brickley will be regular injury callups, both are middling prospects but can skate.like the wind especially the small Grimaldi. If Montoya leaves the backup job will fall to either Sam Brittain or to Michael Houser, both are okay at best.

 

OFFSEASON QUESTIONS: Do you resign any of your veteran free agents? Do you think that Ekblad will step up and fix the point on the power play? Jagr wants to come back, how much does he have left in the tank? Can they build off the breakthrough season?

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First of all, appreciate the effort put into all of these. I can't comment on most of them though, im too ill informed on the other teams. 

 

Anyways, I think if there was anything that went wrong. It was their inability to conclude games in overtime, and their over reliance on prevailing during the shootout in regular season. A substantial portion of their success for the playoff run was because of that.

 

Even then, expect an improvement next season. If only because of the young crew likely to outperform their previous years. Then again, their might be no overall improvement in the standing when you take into consideration the veterans who will inevitably decline.

 

Other then that, I think this is an accurate assessment of the season.

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Panthers are building a big and fast team.

 

That, along with the natural talent of many of their young players, is something the rest of the division needs to be very well aware of.

Consistent scoring, IMO, is the main weakness of this team. The reason so many games went to overtime was because they just didn't generate enough firepower to put games out of reach to prevent them getting to OT in many instances.

 

I wouldn't be in favor of retaining ALL the veterans. Maybe two, three tops.

This team has to move onward and upward with the younger talent taking larger roles.

 

As long as Jagr can play and wants to be there, I'd keep him around. Same with Juri Hudler. And yea, I'd be in favor of seeing if Al Montoya would like to stick around as a back up.....unless the Panthers think they can somehow pluck a young goaltender from someone's farm system to develop behind Luongo.

 

Purcell, Campbell, and when his contract is up, Thornton.

Those guys can go. Thornto has one more year left, but at 39 when that contract ends, I'd say he has served his purpose on the team.

Purcell is wildly inconsistent, doesn't play a particularly tough game and at 4.5M, makes too much to justify what he brings to the table.

Campbell? Aging, was ALWAYS a defensive liability, and of course that 7.5M+ cap hit.....

 

For about three seasons or so, I kept telling people the Panthers were slowly building a winner. Looks like they are still on course for that.

The overall Atlantic divisions may turn out, in about two or three years, to be one of the fastest and most dynamic in the league...and the Panthers would certainly be a contributor to that.

 

As long as they don't try to accelerate the growth process by overpaying for an all or nothing veteran, I think they will be fine next season. Plenty of GOOD vets out there that can compliment the young stars without breaking the bank.

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2 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Panthers are building a big and fast team.

 

That, along with the natural talent of many of their young players, is something the rest of the division needs to be very well aware of.

Consistent scoring, IMO, is the main weakness of this team. The reason so many games went to overtime was because they just didn't generate enough firepower to put games out of reach to prevent them getting to OT in many instances.

I believe they had six 20 goal scorers this year. Their offense is consistent but they're inconsistent when maintaining a lead.

t

2 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

I wouldn't be in favor of retaining ALL the veterans. Maybe two, three tops.

This team has to move onward and upward with the younger talent taking larger roles.

 

I love Jagr, but don't you think those topline minutes would be better reserved for someone actually improving and young. Like Smith?

2 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

As long as Jagr can play and wants to be there, I'd keep him around. Same with Juri Hudler. And yea, I'd be in favor of seeing if Al Montoya would like to stick around as a back up.....unless the Panthers think they can somehow pluck a young goaltender from someone's farm system to develop behind Luongo.

Hudler was ineffective during the few months he was with us. Hopefully he can redeem himself the upcoming year.

 

2 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Purcell, Campbell, and when his contract is up, Thornton.

Those guys can go. Thornto has one more year left, but at 39 when that contract ends, I'd say he has served his purpose on the team.

Purcell is wildly inconsistent, doesn't play a particularly tough game and at 4.5M, makes too much to justify what he brings to the table.

Campbell? Aging, was ALWAYS a defensive liability, and of course that 7.5M+ cap hit.....

 

 

2 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

For about three seasons or so, I kept telling people the Panthers were slowly building a winner. Looks like they are still on course for that.

The overall Atlantic divisions may turn out, in about two or three years, to be one of the fastest and most dynamic in the league...and the Panthers would certainly be a contributor to that.

Our top six is superb. Many adequate point producers on our team. Most notably Barkov, Smith, Trochek and Hubby. Bjuggy less so but that was attributed to his injury he had this year.

 

2 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

As long as they don't try to accelerate the growth process by overpaying for an all or nothing veteran, I think they will be fine next season. Plenty of GOOD vets out there that can compliment the young stars without breaking the bank.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/12/2016 at 10:58 AM, yave1964 said:

Erik Gudranson were just plain nasty to play against

 

 

Well he was traded to the Canucks for Jared McCann. Head scratcher i say.

 

 

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1 minute ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

 

Well he was traded to the Canucks for Jared McCann. Head scratcher i say.

 

 

Gudbranson is nasty to play against, but as one dimensional of a player as there is in the game, he seldom ventures beyond his own blueline to join the rush and when the puck is on his stick he acts like it is a hot potato. A damn good shut down defender with a snarl but at 5 million a year and looking for a raise after this year and a career high of 13 points, my opinion is the Cats simply bent the Canucks over with the return that they acquired. Like I told Pods, Gudbranson could play in my bottm pair any time but that was a huge payout for someone of his skill set. Great deal for the Panthers.

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27 minutes ago, yave1964 said:

Gudbranson is nasty to play against, but as one dimensional of a player as there is in the game, he seldom ventures beyond his own blueline to join the rush and when the puck is on his stick he acts like it is a hot potato. A damn good shut down defender with a snarl but at 5 million a year and looking for a raise after this year and a career high of 13 points, my opinion is the Cats simply bent the Canucks over with the return that they acquired. Like I told Pods, Gudbranson could play in my bottm pair any time but that was a huge payout for someone of his skill set. Great deal for the Panthers.

 

 

I would have traded Mcdud for him in a heartbeat!

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