Zito unsure on off-season changes for Panthers after missing playoffs, hopes to re-sign Bobrovsky
The Florida Panthers will enter the off-season early this year after making three straight trips to the Stanley Cup, which saw the team playing into June.
Panthers general manager Bill Zito believes the team was a victim of both fatigue and bad luck this season as injuries piled up from both wear and tear and fluke incidents.
Florida spent the entire season playing without captain Aleksander Barkov after he tore his ACL and MCL in training camp, and saw key players such as Matthew Tkachuk, Brad Marchand and Seth Jones miss time throughout the year with injuries.
With almost all of their core players under contract for next season, it’s unclear whether the Panthers will make any major changes this off-season or simply bet on a healthy roster being able to bounce back.
“It’s too early to tell,” Zito told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun in The Athletic of the team’s potential off-season roster moves. “But it’s also about availability, right? You can say, ‘I need three Maseratis,’ but there are none out there, there’s none for sale, there’s no one that will trade you theirs, so you’d better have a Plan B.
“I think we’re not alone. But I do think it’s an interesting dynamic now — a few years on this job — where you break down your roster, and you say, ‘We need this. We need that.’ Yeah, OK, where are you going to get it? So, it’s a never-ending puzzle. We’ll just continue to grind and try to make good decisions.’’
The lone exception to their core players being under contract is star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who is slated to reach unrestricted free agency on July 1 as his seven-year, $70 million contract comes to an end.
The 37-year-old netminder has a 27-22-1 record this season with a .878 save percentage and a 3.05 goals-against average. He has never before posted a save percentage below .899 over his NHL career, which began with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010-11.
Daniil Tarasov, who is also a pending UFA, has spent the season as Bobrovsky’s backup, going 10-15-2 with a .892 save percentage and a 3.22 GAA. Florida traded Bobrovsky’s once-heir apparent Spencer Knight in their deal to acquire Jones last season.
“That’s just something we’ll sort out after the season,” Zito said of Bobrovsky’s future. “I’d like to keep him. I hope we can. We’ll see what happens.”
The Panthers are set to enter the off-season with $15.5 million in cap space, per PuckPedia, with 18 of 23 roster spots filled for next season.
Florida was eliminated from postseason contention late last week and currently sit with the sixth-worst record in the NHL. If the Panthers land a top-10 pick following the draft lottery, the team will be able to keep their first rounder that had also been bound for Chicago in the Jones deal. The team would then move their 2027 pick unprotected to the Blackhawks and their 2028 pick unprotected to the Boston Bruins as part of their trade for Brad Marchand last year.
“It would give us the benefit of reaping the benefit of this unfortunate year where you get that higher pick and we would still be able to keep it,” Zito said of potentially having a first rounder this year.
Florida will visit the Montreal Canadiens in the first of their five remaining games in the season.
