Season Gambling Preview: Florida Panthers
Arguably, there was no busier team this offseason than the Florida Panthers in terms of sheer volume. General manager Dale Tallon got busy, acquiring Jose Theodore, Brian Campbell, Ed Jovanovski, Scottie Upshall, Tomas Kopecky, Tomas Fleischmann, Kris Versteeg and Sean Bergenheim.
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FLORIDA PANTHERS
Stanley Cup odds: +8000
Will all those veteran acquisitions help the Panthers reach the playoffs this year or are they still just smoke and mirrors?
To delve deeper into Florida’s furious offseason and assess whether the moves made them better, let’s examine what value the team really added.
Did it add a first-line score? No. Versteeg is a top-six guy but a No. 6 guy in that top six. Upshall has lots of energy but, again, isn’t a dependable scorer. Kopecky is more of a two-way forward. Bergenheim scored a ton in last year’s playoffs with Tampa Bay – as a great third-liner. Of their new forwards, Fleischmann is the only guy with first-line potential. He scored 21 points in 22 games with Colorado last season after arriving from Washington. But even Fleischmann isn’t a sure thing as the sample size is so small.
The bigger question, then, is whether or not Florida has a single first-line player. Stephen Weiss is a nice playmaker and David Booth is a 30-goal man. But place these two on any contending team in the NHL and they’re second-liners, not first liners. The Panthers have reasonable depth at forward but very little high-end scoring touch. The one major difference maker could be Jonathan Huberdeau, the dynamic center Florida drafted third overall this past June. But he has a lot of filling out to do and is no guarantee to make the team at age 18.
On defense, you could argue that Florida added two bona fide top-four defenseman in Brian Campbell and Ed Jovanovski. Campbell makes up for his defensive efficiencies by being a fine power-play quarterback; his numbers only dipped in recent seasons but because Chicago didn’t need him. Jovanovski is getting long in the tooth but is still a physical defender who can be the trigger man from the point with the man advantage. [ad-4437448]
So it’s fair to assume the Panthers’ defense corps should at least chip in more offense this season. Campbell and Jovanovski can also mentor blue-chippers Erik Gudbranson and Dmitry Kulikov.
Between the pipes, are the Panthers better than they were last year? Absolutely not. As well as Jose Theodore might play this season, there’s almost no chance that he duplicates the departed Tomas Vokoun’s consistently excellent save percentage.
Examining all the changes, we get a better sense of Florida’s 2011-12 outlook, and it isn’t good. Their weak, veteran-laden offense and weakened goaltending will offset any improvements to the blueline.
I’d argue that the Panthers’ future is reasonably bright. Gudbranson and Kulikov both have star potential on the blueline and Jacob Markstrom is their goalie of the future. Huberdeau seems to have that X-factor to become a special player who excels in the clutch.
But those youngsters haven’t found their games (or, in some cases, made the team) yet. This season, the Panthers will rely on their ragtag pack of veterans and I’m not convinced they’ll go very far. There’s upside to finish as high as third in the Southeast, ahead of Carolina and Winnipeg, but that’s it. Expect the Panthers’ playoff drought to continue.
Prediction: 5th, Southeast Division
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