The Last Dance

It’s been a relatively quiet year for the Panthers as they’ve slowly gone about business in an attempt to win a third championship under GM Dylan Wilson. The Panthers came out of the gate with a pedestrian 6-6 start. But since that point the Panthers have proven to be one of the best teams in the league as they head into the final week of the season competing for the Presidents’ Trophy. After missing the playoffs the last two years after winning it all back in 2019, how did the Panthers get back here? 

After a lost 2020-21 due to injuries, many speculated as to whether it was finally time to blow it up in Florida. Difficult decisions would have to be made with upcoming UFAs Patrice Bergeron and Jonathan Marchessault, and of course long time captain Sidney Crosby wasn’t getting any younger. Instead, the front office went aggressively into the off-season and spent picks and top prospects to build one of the best teams that have ever suited up in Florida. 

The team sent Evander Kane packing to the division rival Red Wings, then went and made two massive splashes in acquiring Max Pacioretty and Aaron Ekblad from other division rivals Buffalo and Boston respectively. And even as the dawn of the new season was on the horizon and the roster looked locked in, there was one more surprise when the team acquired Mackenzie Weegar from the Anaheim Ducks.

“We felt like we had one of the best goalies in the league heading into this year and we felt like we needed to take advantage of that. We got a legitimate star to play alongside Sidney and bolstered the defense to a point where we believe we had 5 top pairing guys. That’s a luxury not many have,” comment Dylan back in the summer. 

It was a luxury that the Panthers would keep in their back pocket all season in case an opportunity to beef up a weakness showed itself. As the season progressed the idea that Florida would make a big splash seemed remote as they played close to the cap all season. After some maneuvering, there was some room to make add but nothing substantial. On the eve of the deadline they picked up veteran Nic Dowd from the Islanders to give the 4th line more depth.Then the unthinkable happened hours before the deadline when they sent their 2016 1st rounder Jakob Chychrun to the Blackhawks for Mark Stone. 

“In the lead up to the deadline we felt we could really use a top line winger to push us over the edge and identified at least 5 or 6 guys that we pushed hard for in trades. We knew we wanted to use our depth on D to make a move and it just shook out that Jakob was the guy that would be easiest to move. We were close on a handful of deals at the time and there was even a point where we thought we could maybe add two top level guys at the deadline, but that would’ve required shaking up too much of the roster in the middle of the season so we decided to keep it simple and focus on Mark. We felt his size and level of play at both ends of the ice fit best with Sid and Max and hopefully gives us an unstoppable line for the playoffs.” 

So where does that leave us at game 79 of the season? The Panthers have a nice four point gap to the Hurricanes for the lead in the East which would put them in a spot to host the 2nd wild card team. The problem at this point is there is no telling who that could be. There are at least 6 teams who all could fall into that spot, so no game planning has begun for Mike Sullivan and his crew.

A lot is riding on this season. With a flurry with UFAs and RFAs needing raises, these could be the last dance for this group of players before the inevitable reshuffling in the off-season, but one thing for sure is this team is up to the task and ready for a difficult few months.