Florida on the prowl for offense

MIAMI, Fla – Only two teams have not made the playoffs since the lockout in 2005: The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers. The team has teased their fans year in and year out but Florida has fallen short of their goal. Now, as another NHL Entry Draft approaches, Dale Tallon must decide if he can afford to stick to his usual game plan of utilizing a draft to build a winning hockey club, or will he take advantage of having the third pick overall in the draft to add assets to his current roster so his team can finally get over the hump.
The Panthers were 27^th in offense and 14^th in defense. On special teams, they were 30^th on the power play and 6^th on the penalty kill.
Winning face-offs contributed to their success on the PK ranking fourth overall. The loss of Nathan Horton was felt in a big way. Adding someone like a Jeff Carter from the Philadelphia Flyers may or may not be a bad thing if it means making the playoffs.
The Panthers were ranked 28^th in offense the year before so it’s not like the Panthers fell in offense. Still, the Panthers add offense in the off-season, either at the draft or via free agency. Florida gets most of its offense down the middle of the ice from Stephan Weiss, Mike Santorelli, and Marty Reasoner. All 4 left wingers are in the team’s top 10 scorers.
The bad news is the Panthers have a ton of free agents to resign and probably not enough money to go around both on offense and defense. The turnaround will probably determine the team’s long and short term future, not only for the next couple of years but in Florida as a whole.
In the system, the Panthers don’t have a lot in the way of blue chip prospects, especially on wing. Getting a right winger is mandatory for Florida. They do have Michal Repik but between Rochester (AHL) and Florida this year he had a combined 13 goals and 40 assists.

In terms of defensemen, the Panthers are in good shape. Dennis Wideman had a pretty good year as well as Dmitry Kulikov. They are solid and provide a blueline that will give opponents fits. In terms of prospects the Panthers have Erik Gudbranson and Keaton Ellerby as well as Colby Robak. The Panthers should be fine for years to come.
In goal, Tomas Vokoun is a free agent and Jacob Markstrom in the system. If they can keep Vokoun they should be good in goal for the next 5 years at least.
As mentioned before, the Panthers must decide what to do with their pick, third overall. The temptation to trade it might be too great for Tallon, but if the former Blackhawks GM is hell bent on building through the draft, than a team like Ottawa who has more than one pick in the first round, and would love to get their hands on Jonathan Huberdeau, might be in the offering. The Sens would probably have to give up a little more than both picks to get up to three but it is doable.
In out mock draft, we don’t take trades unless it happens before the draft. That means with defenseman Adam Larsson still on the board it might be tough to pass him up but with the team’s major need on offense trading a center either in their system or on the roster to shore up a weakness on right wing might be prudent.
Here at PHN we feel that Tallon will go for offense come draft day. The means he will look to either Huberdeau, Sean Couturier, or Ryan Strome, all centers. This is a poor year for drafting wingers so look for the following announcement come draft day.
“The Florida Panthers are proud to select, from the Memorial Cup Champion Saint John Sea Dogs of the Quebec Major Juniors, center Jonathan Huberdeau.”
To learn more about Jonathan Huberdeau click here .
Contact the photographer at Lewis.Bleiman@prohockeynews.com Contact the author at Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com