2026-27 NHL team preview: Florida Panthers
LAST SEASON
The 2025-26 season was a real Murphy’s Law experience for the Florida Panthers and their fans. After winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2024 and 2025, establishing themselves as the dominant franchise in the league in the process, everything that could have gone wrong last year did go wrong.
It started early during training camp when all-world center and perennial Selke Trophy favorite Aleksander Barkov was lost for the entire year with a knee injury. When combined with Matthew Tkachuk’s early-season absence as he dealt with lingering injuries from the season prior, the Panthers were starting out terribly hobbled.
Not a single player on the team appeared in all 82 games, and all in all, Florida lost 541 man games due to injury throughout the season. That didn’t stop them from hanging around the picture in the Eastern Conference playoff race for a while, though. As late as Jan. 12, the Panthers were just one point behind the cut line for the second wild card spot in the East.
Eventually, though, reality caught up as a team full of veterans with heavy legs from three straight postseasons of going the distance ran out of gas as key injuries only kept piling up. Center Anton Lundell was a bright spot, as his 44 points in 64 appearances marked the most productive season of his career since his rookie campaign as he shouldered much of the responsibilities left behind in Barkov’s absence.
Sam Reinhart led or co-led the team in all three major offensive categories with 29 goals and 32 assists for 61 points in 64 games, and then-37-year-old Brad Marchand continued to defy aging curves by notching 27 goals in 52 games, marking the first time he scored at more than a half goal per game since the 2020-21 season.
Ultimately, the Panthers wrapped up their nightmarish season with a record of 40-38-4, putting them in seventh place in the Atlantic Division and arming them with the premium draft pick and salary-cap flexibility that general manager Bill Zito needed to re-load his roster for a serious pursuit of a third Stanley Cup championship in four years.
KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES
Additions
Brady Tkachuk, LW
Jacob Markstrom, G
Garnet Hathaway, RW
Akira Schmid, G
Radko Gudas, D
Lars Eller, C
Sam Lafferty, C
Alex Petrovic, D
Departures
Sergei Bobrovsky, G (Tor)
Evan Rodrigues, LW (NJ)
Mackie Samoskevich, RW (Sea)
A.J. Greer, LW (Ana)
Daniil Tarasov, G (Det)
Tomas Nosek, LW (Cze.)
Jesper Boqvist, LW (NJ)
Noah Gregor, LW (Wpg)
Vinnie Hinostroza, LW (Col)
OFFENSE
As if the Panthers needed more offensive firepower, Zito wasted little time in adding it this offseason by landing Brady Tkachuk from the Ottawa Senators for a package comprised entirely of draft picks. After months and months of chatter bubbling under the surface that the younger Tkachuk brother was unhappy with his situation in Canada’s capital, he unites with his brother in a move that gives head coach Paul Maurice plenty of intriguing options for setting up his top six. Tkachuk has been a great, but not elite, even-strength producer over the past three years, and injecting some relative youth and excess hunger into this lineup was a no-brainer at the cost.
It’s worth wondering what Barkov will look like over a full season after the knee injury, but if his play for Finland at the World Championship was any indication, he won’t miss a beat. In addition to his defensive excellence, Barkov ranks 24th in 5-on-5 points per 60 minutes among the 363 forwards to skate at least 1,500 minutes over the past three years. The Tkachuk brothers are stars, but Barkov is still the team’s primary driver of offense.
Beyond Barkov and the Tkachuks, Florida has an embarrassment of riches among its support scoring ranks. Sams Bennett and Reinhart plus Carter Verhaeghe round out the top six, and the third line of Eetu Luostarinen, Lundell and Marchand is pretty unquestionably the best in the league. While the top nine is old by definition due to a high average age, Marchand is the only one older thran 31, meaning he’s the only guy in this elite group for whom there is real reason to worry about a sudden drop-off in production.
The projected fourth line of Garnet Hathaway, Lars Eller and Sandis Vilmanis is quite unlikely to chip in any sort of noticeable depth scoring, but that’s been the case for pretty much every iteration of the Panthers’ fourth line over the past three seasons, save for a breakout last season from AJ Greer, who was elevated from a fourth-line role anyway as injuries mounted. What they will provide is physicality, solid defense and a strong buy-in to Florida’s overall style of agitating play.
One thing the Panthers lack compared to their peers in the elite tiers of the NHL is legitimate offensive production from the blueline. Florida has not had a defenseman reach the 40-point mark in any of the past three seasons, which obviously includes two Stanley Cup wins. Gustav Forsling hit 41 in 2022-23, but the Panthers are the only real contender without a defenseman who can act as an offensive engine in transition and on the power play with 50-point upside. They’ve been able to win anyway by being excellent in every other facet of the game, but it’s something to file away mentally.
DEFENSE
Speaking of Florida’s defense, what it lacks in offensive production, it makes up for in steadiness and contributions to overall play-driving. There’s plenty of continuity here, as a top four made up of Forsling, Aaron Ekblad, Niko Mikkola and Seth Jones promises to leave little space for opposing forwards in the neutral and attacking zones while doling out plenty of physical punishment in the process. Forsling’s cerebral defensive excellence is a great complement to the brute force and physicality his fellow defenders provide.
It’s understandable as to why, but Forsling’s defensive impact was not exempt from the negative effects of Barkov’s season-long absence and the other injuries. His on-ice expected goals for at 5-on-5 last season (2.91) was consistent with 2023-24 and 2024-25, but his expected goals against shot up to 2.68 from 2.39 and 2.30 in the prior two years. That took him from being an elite suppressor of scoring chances to right around league average.
That same trend applied to Florida’s team defense as a whole (2.71 xGA/60), and it can not be emphasized enough how much of a shot in the arm it will be to have Barkov back to deploy against the many dangerous scoring threats the Panthers will face in the Atlantic Division.
However, while I poured cold water on the idea of a high average age being a problem for Florida’s forwards, I’m not so sure the same line of reasoning applies on the back end. Forsling, Jones, Mikkola and Ekblad are all either 30 or 31, and the projected bottom pairing consists of 35-year-old Dmitry Kulikov and 36-year-old Radko Gudas, who re-joins the Panthers after a stint as captain of the Anaheim Ducks.
Ekblad and Jones, who both broke into the league as 18-year-olds, have a lot of mileage on their legs, and all five players aside from Forsling are physical warriors who have demanded a lot of their bodies over the years. There’s a lot of optimism around the Panthers this season back to full health with another star forward tossed into the mix, and rightfully so, but if you’re looking for a bear case, it’s not too hard to see a world where this defensive unit gets a tick slower and a tad less punishing to play against and that causes a ripple effect that costs them games, especially in the postseason after an 84-game regular season.
Of course, it could even more easily go perfectly well, and another Selke season from Barkov and quality defensive depth throughout the forward ranks combined with a lack of regression among the defensemen is a formula that leads to the Panthers being the best defensive team in the NHL.
GOALTENDING
It’s an entirely new tandem between the pipes for the Cats, who allowed Sergei Bobrovsky to walk to the Toronto Maple Leafs in free agency. With the roster crumbling around him, Bob was not his typical self last season— instead resembling the shaky version of himself Florida got when he first joined the club in free agency and only topped a .902 save percentage in two of his first four years.
Bobrovsky finished with a 27-23-1 record across 52 appearances and 51 starts to go with a .877 SV% and 3.07 goals against average. Among 71 goalies who were on the ice for at least 600 minutes last season, Bobrovsky ranked 62nd in goals saved above average per 60 minutes at -0.47.
So it should be pretty simple to guarantee an upgrade from that performance, right? Well, maybe… maybe not. Zito found his new starting goalie in an old Panther this summer when he acquired Jacob Markstrom from the New Jersey Devils in exchange for a package centered around Evan Rodrigues, who had provided valuable all-around play and scoring depth to the group.
Like Florida, Markstrom had a 2025-26 season to forget. The Devils suffered considerable injuries around him, and he proved unable to help offset the other shortcomings the team had. While Bobrovsky ranked 62nd in GSAA/60 at all situations, Markstrom wasn’t much better at 54th. The 36-year-old finished 23-19-1 in his 44 appearances with a .883 SV% and 3.07 GAA.
While it seems like Markstrom’s days as a high-level starter seem well in the rearview mirror, this could still work out quite nicely for Florida. Going from the 2025-26 Devils to a (theoretically) healthy version of the 2026-27 Panthers is a massive upgrade in terms of the defensive environment surrounding the veteran Swede, who was considerably more effective in his first of two seasons in Newark (.900 SV%).
Joining Markstrom in the new tandem will be another former Devil in Akira Schmid, who was around league average with -0.06 GSAA/60 (41st of the 71) across 34 appearances with the Vegas Golden Knights that saw him go 16-10-6 with a .893 SV% and 2.59 GAA.
COACHING
Paul Maurice, who began his NHL head coaching career in Hartford as the fifth-youngest head coach in NHL history, enters the season 44 wins shy of becoming the third coach in league history to reach 1,000 regular season wins. Now an all-time legend and elder statesman of the profession with two Stanley Cups under his belt, Maurice has nothing left to prove and plenty of history to chase. His hiring sparked the Panthers’ transformation from a softer perimeter team to the ruthless physical pests we know today.
Maurice’s assistant coaches include Jamie Kompon, Sylvain Lefebvre, Tuomo Ruutu (whom Maurice coached in Carolina) and Myles Fee. Kompon was an assistant for two Stanley Cups under Joel Quenneville with the Chicago Blackhawks. The staff maintained respectable special teams output despite the injuries, as the power play ranked 19th in the league and the penalty kill placed 9th.
ROOKIES
Florida’s status as a perennial contender with the oldest and most experienced core in hockey, along with plenty of veteran depth, means there is little to no room on their roster for rookies to make a serious impact, but that doesn’t mean the organization is completely devoid of possible first-year contributors.
Vilmanis figures to have a strong chance to stick as a regular in the bottom six and, with just 19 games of NHL experience, maintains rookie status. The Latvian winger had five points last season on three goals and two assists during his stint with the big club, and he’s a clear fit in terms of role and identity.
If injuries strike again, the Panthers have a few more options in their pipeline knocking on the door. Jack Devine could be a solid plug-and-play option for an injury in the top six. The American winger and University of Denver alum posted 43 points in 63 games with Florida’s AHL affiliate Charlotte Checkers last season.
There’s also Gracyn Sawchyn, the former Edmonton Oil King who notched 23 points in 35 games in Charlotte last season. Daily Faceoff prospect analyst Steven Ellis ranks him as the No. 4 prospect in Florida’s system, noting his effectiveness as a forechecker.
Another player who got a taste of NHL action during the Panthers’ injury run who retains rookie status is Marek Alscher, a defenseman who impressed with three points and a plus-4 rating in his four games at the NHL level a season ago.
BURNING QUESTIONS
1. Can Markstrom still be a quality starting goalie? Zito has more than earned enough benefit of the doubt to have his moves trusted immediately at face value, but there are a lot of red flags here. It’s true that the conditions around Markstrom in New Jersey deteriorated around him last season, but his poor play early in the year was a major reason why the Devils started behind the 8-ball even before Jack Hughes got hurt. Markstrom hasn’t had a season even remotely as good as Bobrovsky’s 2023-24 effort in any of the past four seasons, and Markstrom is not going to become more talented or more reliably healthy at 36. The bet is that the Panthers’ structure and team defense is enough to insulate him and push his numbers up. It certainly could happen, but for a team with such clear Stanley Cup upside, you would like to see a better answer in net.
2. Does the intimidation factor in the East stick? The Panthers made their bones in the Stanley Cup Playoffs from 2023-2025 by outclassing and bullying four teams: the Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes, as they defeated all four of those teams in at least two of those three runs. Boston and Toronto are no longer among the top threats to Florida in the Atlantic, replaced by the Montreal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres, who each got playoff series wins under their belt last spring. There’s little reason to believe the Panthers won’t still have a huge psychological edge over the Lightning, but the same can’t be said about the Hurricanes, who return an entire roster of newly minted (and confident) Stanley Cup champions and will be champing at the bit for the opportunity to validate their 2026 title by knocking off the 2024 and 2025 champs if given the opportunity in the Eastern Conference Final. The Panthers clearly deserve to be seen as the favorites in the Atlantic, and quite arguably even the East, but the target will be just as prominent on their backs as it will be on Carolina’s, even after missing the playoffs last season.
3. Will Brady Tkachuk take the leap to superstardom? The former Senator is going to make a strong impact on the Panthers’ forward group; that much is not up for debate. But after two straight years of first-round exits in Ottawa, including a sweep at the hands of the Hurricanes that saw Brady held without a point, Tkachuk should be plenty motivated to prove he can be a top contributor on a Cup-winning team. While Matthew has a pair of 100-point seasons and stronger underlyings, Brady has not proven himself to be one of the truly elite forwards in the sport. If he is one, he’ll be without any excuses to perform like it this season. He could play with Matthew, with Barkov, or on a stacked second line with stellar linemates against lesser competition. The younger Tkachuk and the Panthers are going to be good this season, but if Brady finds his best level yet, Florida will be nearly impossible to beat.
PREDICTION
The Panthers are going to make the playoffs. There’s little question there. Even in the most pessimistic vision of this season, they are vastly superior to any Wildcard contender in the Metropolitan Division, and while a case could be made that any of Tampa Bay, Montreal or Buffalo could finish ahead of them, it’s impossible to see all three pulling it off along with two of Ottawa, Toronto and Boston.
As for how the playoff run unfolds: we have not seen the Panthers lose a series to an Eastern Conference opponent since getting swept by the Bolts in the second round in 2022, a loss that prompted them to completely overhaul their roster and coaching by dealing Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar to get Matthew Tkachuk and moving on from Andrew Brunette to hire Maurice.
While it’s not hard to imagine the Panthers getting bested by one of their divisional foes during the regular season, it is hard to picture it in a playoff series. No team can match their talent up front, and Montreal, the one that is closest in talent throughout the roster, looked completely unprepared for Carolina in this past year’s conference final. Florida would give them the same challenges at possibly an even higher level.
We’ll follow the even year/odd year trend. In 2023 and 2025, the Eastern Conference Final was between the Panthers and Hurricanes, with the Panthers winning via sweep in 2023 and in five games in 2025. The spring of 2027 will bring us a third installment of this budding rivalry between the two teams that are clearly the class of the East, and the winner will be well positioned to make sure the Stanley Cup stays in the Sun Belt.
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