2025 Offseason in Review: Florida Panthers
The Florida Panthers found a way to bring back most of the key pieces to their second consecutive Stanley Cup and are loaded up for a shot at a three-peat.
Pucks and Palms will be breaking down the offseason of every team in the NHL leading up to the beginning of the season. Naturally, we’re starting with the two-time defending champions and the team that started it all — the Florida Panthers.
We will be expanding our coverage to provide analysis around the league in the 2025-26 season, but will still put an emphasis on the Panthers because that’s where our base is.
Who’s Back: Sam Bennett (8x$8m), Aaron Ekblad (8x$6.1m), Brad Marchand (6x$5.25m), Tomas Nosek (1x$775k), Mackie Samoskevich (1x$775k)
Who’s New: Daniel Tarasov (1x1.05m), Jeff Petry (1x$775k)
Who’s Gone: Nate Schmidt, Nico Sturm, Vitek Vanecek, Jaycob Megna, Justin Sourdif
Who’s Injured: Matthew Tkachuk
Cap Space (per PuckPedia): -$3.73 million
Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito masterfully found a way to run it back after his team successfully captured its second consecutive Stanley Cup — at least for now.
Star forwards Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand, as well as stalwart defenseman Aaron Ekblad, signed long-term deals to remain with the team for the foreseeable future with Nate Schmidt and Nico Sturm being the only two notable departures.
The Panthers do sit roughly $4 million over the salary cap, but the Panthers are likely to have some time to figure out what their next move is going to be with Matthew Tkachuk likely starting the season on long-term injured reserve with a lower-body injury.
Per ESPN, Tkachuk is likely to miss the first 2-3 months of the season if he goes through with having a surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle that he suffered at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. He played through it during the Stanley Cup Playoffs after missing the remainder of the regular season rehabbing the injury.
Regardless of what that move is going to be, the Panthers have put themselves in a position to stay afloat during Tkachuk’s absence and compete for their third championship in a row upon his return.
Marchand will be a key part of that in his first full season in South Florida.
After a slow start to his Panthers tenure to close out the regular season — scoring two goals and four points in 10 games — the longtime Boston Bruin gelled right in come playoff time. His 10 goals and 20 points in Florida’s 23-game postseason run often came in opportune moments as he helped the Panthers to their second consecutive Stanley Cup.
He found himself a home on the third line next to Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen, but he may be asked to fill a larger role in the months Tkachuk misses. Of course, he is fully capable of doing so.
Mackie Samoskevich will also play a pivotal role in the early-season forward group if Tkachuk misses time. The rising sophomore scored 15 goals and 31 points in 72 games in his first full season in the NHL, adding an assist in four playoff games to open the Panthers’ Cup run.
Samoskevich could end up with an increased role in the postseason depending on the move Florida makes to free up cap space upon Tkachuk’s return. Evan Rodrigues ($3 million AAV) is a likely candidate to get moved elsewhere after seeing his role diminish down the stretch upon Marchand’s arrival before reclaiming his spot in the Top 6 during the postseason.
If Samoskevich and Marchand fill those roles in the Top 9 sufficiently — which is hardly a question — the Panthers will largely look like themselves to start the season.
The Panthers did an adequate job filling the few holes that were created with the departures of Nico Sturm and Nate Schmidt.
Florida filled Sturm’s role in-house, re-signing Tomas Nosek after he earned his job centering the fourth line at times during the postseason, while Jeff Petry fills Schmdit’s role as the third-pairing defenseman with the ability to quarterback a power play unit.
Petry has regressed since having four straight 40-point seasons from 2017 to 2021, scoring just eight points in 44 games in a 2024-25 season plagued by an abdominal injury, but he provides value on his league-minimum contract. He has put up at least 20 assists in each of his past seven full seasons, scoring three goals and 24 points in 72 games in 2023-24.
With those moves, the Panthers have very few holes or question marks heading into the 2025-26 season — aside from the long-term health of Tkachuk.
Projected 2025-26 Ceiling: Atlantic Division Champions, Stanley Cup Champions
Projected 2025-26 Floor: Third place in the Atlantic Division, Eastern Conference finalist (Anything less would be a disappointment given the track record of this team.)
Projected Opening Night Lineup:
Carter Verhaeghe — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues — Sam Bennett — Brad Marchand
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Mackie Samoskevich
Jesper Boqvist — Tomas Nosek — A.J. Greer
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Seth Jones
Dmitry Kulikov — Jeff Petry
Sergei Bobrovsky
Daniil Tarasov
Welcome back Colby.