By Antoine Mathieu, Staff Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine
QUEBEC CITY, QC. — I’m getting down to the bottom of the barrel here. Today’s team is of course, the Florida Panthers!
2014-15 EASTERN CONFERENCE predicted standings
- Tampa Bay Lightning
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- Boston Bruins
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- New York Rangers
- Montreal Canadiens
- New Jersey Devils
- Washington Capitals
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Detroit Red Wings
- New York Islanders
- Florida Panthers
2013-’14 summary: Florida Panthers
Regular season record of 29 – 45 – 8, 66 points, 15th East, missed the playoffs.
The Panthers have been pretty irrelevant since the new millennium. The Blackhawks’ former GM, Dale Tallon, was able to bring the Panthers to the playoffs in 2011-12 but it seems to have been an anomaly more than anything. Since then Florida has finished in the bottom three in the Eastern conference for two consecutive years. With a new face behind their bench in Gerard Gallant, the Panthers are hoping to take some steps forward with a relatively young team.
The Panthers shocked the hockey world last trade deadline when they made the acquisition of Roberto Luongo. This move sent a message around the league that starting next season, the Panthers want to be competitive. Luongo who in my opinion is still an NHL starter will try to bring legitimacy in net for Florida which has been something that’s been missing since the departure of Tomas Vokoun in 2010-11.
At the age of 35, Luongo’s best years are behind him but I think the move to Florida will do wonders for his career. Many fans were bitter about how the whole Cory Schneider versus Luongo debacle unfolded. For the first time in a while, he won’t be under the microscope by the media. There won’t be pressure for him to lead the team to the promised land like it was the case with the Canucks. Luongo is controlling his own fate right now and he won’t be crucified by the media or fans if he doesn’t turn the Panthers into a playoff team.
Dale Tallon added a mix of older players and young talent this summer. He started off by selecting Aaron Ekblad with the team’s first overall pick. Ekblad was the consensual number one pick in many scout’s eyes and he’s expected to play for the Panthers as soon as next season. Tallon also acquired Brandon Pirri via trade with the Blackhawks and signed Dave Bolland, Jussi Jokinen, Willie Mitchell, Derek MacKenzie and Al Montoya.
The Blackhawks got everybody’s attention on July first and it was all for the wrong reasons. The contract they handed to Dave Bolland is David Clarkson-esque bad. Bolland has a career high of 47 points (which happened five years ago) and will be getting paid $5,500,000 for the next five years! Even without taking in consideration that he is a 40 point player at best, the term for his contract is ridiculous. Bolland since 2009-10 has missed 142 NHL games. And it’s not like his injury problems have gone away, he only played 23 games last season! The scary thing is that he’s only 28 years old so it’s not like his problems will magically go away as he gets older. Especially considering his style of play (see Brandon Prust.)
Bring up intangibles like leadership, grit or being ‘clutch’ all you want, but no one in their right mind can justify this contract. Bolland will be making more money than Tomas Plekanec, Jarome Iginla, Shane Doan, Jeff Carter and countless others! Let that sink in for a second. It’s not like the Panthers desperately needed Bolland either, they already have a ton of young upcoming centers coming up such as Alex Barkov, Nick Bjugstad and Drew Shore. Bolland is going to be paid that much money to play on their third line, that’s just unheard of on a successful team!
I think Willie Mitchell will be what Ed Jovanovski should have been for them when they signed him three years ago. Jovanovski’s body failed to deliver and it was almost a farce that he was their captain considering that he was rarely healthy. Mitchell will bring leadership and a steady presence on the back-end. Mitchell is a winner (two Stanley Cup rings) and commands the respect of many of his peers around the league. His experience (almost 800 NHL games) will come in handy considering the amount of young players they have on their roster.
Jussi Jokinen could be a good pick-up but he can’t be expected to carry his line. He’s a nice complimentary player as we’ve seen with the Penguins. He had a great season but there’s no Evgeni Malkin in Florida, at least for now. The Finnish forward has bounced around since wowing fans with his shootout abilities. Hopefully he can find chemistry with Tomas Fleischmann or one of the kids and live up to his contract. But as I’ve mentioned, don’t expect him to carry his line because that’s when your team is in trouble. The Hurricanes tried him in a such role and that’s what got him to be waived in 2012-13.
Brandon Pirri had a promising debut with the Panthers, he had the highest point per game for them and his 14 points in 21 games show that he can be productive at the NHL level. Pirri was stuck on Chicago’s AHL team, the Rockford Icehawks, because they didn’t have room for him on their NHL roster. The 23-year-old definitely paid his dues in the AHL with almost a point per game production in his last two seasons there. Pirri is slotted to play LW this year; his play will determine whether or not he plays on the second line or the third line.
Derek MacKenzie and Al Montoya should both be nice additions to the team. MacKenzie is a tough fourth liner who’s not afraid to drop the gloves and make his presence known. He’s good at faceoffs and can kill penalties. Many Jets fans were sad to see Montoya go, at some point last year it seemed like the 29-year-old net minder had stolen the starter’s job from Ondrej Pavelec. Montoya shouldn’t cause a goalie controversy in Florida but he’ll back a solid back-up for Luongo.
The problem with the Panthers’ offensive group is that beside their homegrown talent, it’s filled with NHL misfits. I wouldn’t consider Brad Boyes, Jussi Jokinen and Sean Bergenheim la crème de la crème up front. That strategy paid off in 2011-12 when the Panthers miraculously made the playoffs and almost upset the New Jersey Devils in the first round. The concern I have with that group of veterans is that they’re far from consistent. Boyes has bounced around similarly to Jokinen and his best years are behind him.
If the Barkov and Bjugstad (who was arguably Florida’s top forward) last season keep progressing and if Jonathan Huberdeau bounces back for a horrible year and returns to his form that got him a Calder trophy in 2013, the Panthers certainly won’t have a 38 point player as their scoring leader. They should have some decent secondary scoring with the likes of Scottie Upshall and Tomas Kopecky. They also added Shawn Thornton who will make sure the kids are not messed with, similar to the role Deryk Engelland will have in Calgary.
Tomas Fleischmann should have a better year with the Panthers next season. The 30-year-old who’s usually accustomed to scoring 20 goals a year only had eight last season. It might have had something to do with him being snake bitten, he was riding a 4.3 percent shooting percentage which is well below his career percentage of 11. Fleischman is a good candidate to have a bounce back season next year.
The Panthers do have an interesting group on defense that could surprise some people. They have Brian Campbell who’s still an offensive force despite his age thanks to his fluid skating. They have Erik Gudbranson who’s slowly but surely finding his game at the NHL level. Many have him pegged as the next Panthers’ captain. Add to that group the enigmatic Dmitri Kulikov and there’s a decent group of defensemen. How Ekblad pans out will play a big part on whether or not the Panthers become a force in the league.
It will be fun to follow how well Gerard Gallant does in his second stint. I think he’s in a similar situation as when he coached the Blue Jackets in the early 2000’s but he has a lot more experience under his belt now. His success in the QMJHL with Saint John will help him in a huge way when it comes to coaching young players. In Florida, he’ll be reunited with Jonathan Huberdeau, hopefully Gallant can get him back on the right track.
Quick facts about Florida:
- Second worst team last year in goals for.
- They had the worst power play in the league, considering that Gallant was in charge of the Canadiens power-play, he should help them to be a bigger threat on the man advantage.
- The Panthers this season had the lowest leading scorer in the modern era. Before that it was Scott Pellerin’s 39 points with the Minnesota Wild in 2000-01.