It has been nine seasons since the Florida Panthers made the playoffs. After a drought like that, ownership brought in Dave Tallon, the architect of the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks. Don’t expect immediate success from Tallon, as these things take time. Tallon joins a cast of general managers in the fastest growing division in hockey, and he will have his hands full competing with the offensive juggernauts in Washington and the “nowhere to go but up” Lightning and Hurricanes organizations. The Panthers will be lucky to make the playoffs this year, but don’t count them out of the discussion in say…two or three years.
Offense: D+ The Florida forward group is one of the weakest in the entire league. After losing Nathan Hortan to the Bruins this offseason, Stephen Weiss will be relied upon to sustain the majority of the offense after coming off a 60 point campaign in 2009-2010. Weiss will line up between the speedy Michael Frolik and David Booth, who Panthers fans hope sheds the injuries of his past. The second line center job will go to Steven Reinprecht who will join veteran Radek Dvorak and newly acquired Christopher Higgins, a former All-American at Yale. This group seriously lacks the scoring depth to keep up with the other high scoring offenses of the Eastern Conference and the Southeast Division in particular.
Defense: C- The Panthers are also rebuilding their blueline. They lost Keith Ballard to free agency this summer and did their best to replace him with Boston defenseman Dennis Wideman in the Nathan Horton trade. Wideman will likely be paired up with 2009 first round draft pick, Dimitri Kulikov, who has shown great promise. Kulikov has been learning the tricks of the trade from 35 year old captain Bryan McCabe. McCabe will teach Kulikov the defensive side of the game to round out his Russian offensive flair. Bryan Allen joins the aforementioned to provide satisfactory defensive play. As far as depth is concerned, the Panthers may have to rush the third overall pick from this years draft, Erik Gudbranson, into a regular NHL roster spot.
Goaltending: A- The man between the pipes is the one area where the Panthers don’t need to have any concern. Playing with an abysmal team in front of him, Tomas Vokoun has still managed to put up outstanding numbers year after year. Last season he finished tied for third in the NHL in shutouts with a .925 save percentage. These would be good numbers for a goalie on a respectable team, so for Vokoun to accomplish this without much help is a testament to his ability. He gives the Panthers a chance to win on any given night, and Dale Tallon will not overlook this as he moves forward holding onto the reigns of this ice hockey club in Sunshine, Florida. It has even been speculated that Vokoun will be moved by seasons end to a Stanley Cup contender. This would mean the Panthers would finish the season with highly touted prospect Jacob Markstrom manning the crease.
