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The Florida Panthers were devastated by injuries coming out of a cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Final back in June, and it's taken a while to get back to full health after the postseason. It took over a quarter of the year, but the Cats are now finally healthy. Both Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad, who were instrumental to the team's playoff success and paid for it with respective offseason surgeries, are back in the lineup. Sam Bennett, whose rotated between healthy and injured all year, also seems to be back to full health.
The only two players not around the team are Josh Mahura, who is on injured reserve, and depth forward Jonah Gadjovich, who is day-to-day and probably doesn't have a spot even when healthy. Looking at the roster on paper, this is as close as Florida has come to icing the team that beat the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes last spring.
The return of Montour and Ekblad, along with the savvy free agent signings of Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Niko Mikkola and Dmitry Kulikov, have transformed the defensive corps. Gustav Forsling continues to excel on the top pair, and the Panthers boast one of the deeper defensive units in the game. It's also been reflected on the stat sheet; Florida is averaging just 2.54 goals against per game, good enough for fourth in the league.
The crease is also in great shape, with Sergei Bobrovsky continuing to play a lot, and play well following his playoff heroics a few months back. The Russian star has started 18 games, won 11 of them, and played to a fantastic 2.41 goals-against average and .912 save percentage in 2023-24. On the defensive side of the puck, the Panthers are in great shape.
The problem, which is very surprising considering the abundance of talent up front, is the offense.
Cats struggling to score goals
Last season, the Panthers ranked sixth in goals for, averaging 3.51 per game. This year, they're at 3.0 — good enough for 20th in the league. The top line of Sasha Barkov, Evan Rodrigues and Sam Reinhart, which was red-hot at the beginning of the campaign, has cooled down. The lethal trio of Matthew Tkachuk, Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett is showing flashes of brilliance, but has also struggled to get going. Tkachuk has scored just 19 points in 24 games, which is well off the 100+ point pace he's scored at each of the last two years.
Reinhart continues to lead the offensive push with 16 goals and a fantastic 29 points in 24 games, but even he's registered just four points in his last six. And the offensive depth, which was prevalent last year, is nowhere to be found. Anton Lundell has 10 points in 24 games, Nick Cousins and Eetu Luostarinen have 5 each, and Ryan Lomberg has just two.
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Goals are just hard to come by in South Beach right now, which is disappointing considering both the defense and goaltending has been great in 2023-24. Although the Cats are strapped tight to the salary cap, general manager Bill Zito could look to add another scoring winger to the middle-six ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline. One interesting option could be Philadelphia Flyers' struggling prospect Morgan Frost.
Morgan Frost could use a change of scenery
Morgan Frost was a highly-touted prospect when he was drafted by Philly with the No. 27 overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft. And he was great in his first full season in Philadelphia after getting into 55 games in 2021-22; the 24-year-old scored 19 goals and 46 points in 81 games last season.
But the Aurora, Canada native has been in and out of the lineup for a surprisingly decent Flyers team, and he is a prime candidate for a change of scenery in 2023-24. The Athletic's Chris Johnston included Frost at No. 7 on his first trade board of the season, and has him as the top winger currently available ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline. Here's what Johnson had to say about the former first-rounder:
“Frost is one of the youngest players to appear on this trade board and certainly doesn’t need to be moved with one year beyond this remaining on his contract and restricted free agency looming beyond that. Yes, there’s still an opportunity for this situation to go in a different direction. But Philadelphia is open for business and Frost is a 24-year-old center with a 19-goal season already under his belt, and the Flyers would consider just about anything put in front of them right now.”
Frost is making just $2.1 million this season, and with just under $2 million in salary cap space to work with, Zito and the Panthers' front office could make something work. With the amount of talent up front — and guys who have been in the league a long time — it seems like only a matter of time before the offense gets going. But adding a young, speedy winger could help mitigate some of the offensive woes in Sunrise.
