The NHL’s Southeast Division’s Florida Panthers Offseason Review.

The Florida Panthers have been relatively quiet in the offseason because of their impending sale which is being finalized with a New York investment group.  Oh-so-close to a playoff spot in 2008-2009, the Florida Panthers will have to be active this summer in order to avoid falling back, especially since they lost their workhorse defenceman Jay Bouwmeester to the Calgary Flames.  He was traded for defenseman Jordan Leopold and a draft choice.  This was GM Randy Sexton making the best of a bad situation salvaging something.  While losing Bouwmeester is hardly the ideal situation, the Panthers have bolstered their defence corps to the point that they should be able to manage.  A more glaring need at this point is to make moves for proven scoring talent.  The Panthers roster is young enough that there is reason to expect further improvement and that would be enough to finally end their eight-year playoff drought.

The Florida Panthers locked up one of their young cornerstones by signing forward David Booth to a six-year contract worth $25.5 million.  Booth led the Panthers with a career-best 31 goals along with a personal-high of 60 points in 72 games.  In three seasons, all with Florida, the 24-year-old has recorded 56 goals and 110 points in 193 games.  The Panthers also have re-signed winger Radek Dvorak to a two-year deal averaging $1.7 million a season.  Dvorak played 81 games with the Panthers last season, scoring 15 goals and 36 points.  Stephen Weiss’s gradual development since he was drafted fourth overall in 2001 has led to his being underrated in recent seasons, but that shouldn’t be the case any longer after he put up a career-high 61 points and plus-19 rating last season. Weiss needs to keep improving offensively if he’s wants to become a true top NHL centerman.

Goaltending was an obvious strength for the Panthers last season, allowing the most shots in the league, yet tied for ninth in goals against.  Tomas Vokoun was brilliant at times and finished with a career-best six shutouts and .926 save percentage.  If he’s not an elite NHL goaltender, he’s not too far off that level.

With the 14th pick in the NHL draft the Panthers selected defenseman Dmitry Kulikov.  He’s a great skater who can carry and shoot the puck well.  He’s strong, he can take big hits and they don’t seem to bother him.  He knows when to join the rush and recognizes the holes but he plays defense first.  He shoots the puck well on the powerplay and I believe that he will have cracked the panther lineup early next year.

Florida’s really not that far off from challenging for a playoff spot but if they have any aspirations of really contending for the Stanley Cup trophy then all of their young core will have to rise to  a level of play beyond anyone’s wild expectations.  We’ll see if the Panther’s can pull it off.  Stranger things have happened.