Florida Panthers Have an Issue on Defense; Can They Fix It?
The Florida Panthers are having issues on defense — What can they do to fix them?
In the many games that the Florida Panthers have been blitzed out of the building defensively, one thing is abundantly clear: They have a roster construction issue on defense.
It’s a blameless one. An issue a lot of teams face after winning the Stanley Cup.
The cost of Brandon Montour was driven up after a 73-point season in 2022-23 led way to one where he helped the Panthers to a Stanley Cup while averaging a shade under 24 minutes a night and it became too much to bear.
The rotating pieces next to Niko Mikkola on that second pairing have been passable, at times, but it’s led to a clear issue.
Florida has been relying on Aaron Ekblad and Gustav Forsling way too much.
“We’re asking a lot of Gustav,” coach Paul Maurice said after Forsling scored the game-tying goal while logging 23:27 of . “We’re playing him more minutes than I’d like to right now. We’d like to get him down to just over the 20s, but he will go as hard as he possibly can for as long as you ask him to. He won’t quit, he will grind and grind.”
The same could be said about Ekblad, who recently took the mantle on Florida’s power play after a few depth options could not get the job done and has logged as many as 27 minutes in games at times.
The Panthers have tried all they could — rotating Nate Schmidt and Dmitry Kulikov on that second pairing next to Niko Mikkola to some success — but something has to give.
Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Panthers have their eye on the trade market for a right-shot defenseman, but they will not have the cap space to do so until February.
Once their cap space accrues at the trade deadline, they will have $2.5 million to make a move at the deadline, but the Panthers will have to survive for another three months to even get to that point.
They’ve tried a handful of things to get through this stretch.
The Panthers have had Nate Schmidt and Dmitry Kulikov rotating in on the second pairing next to Niko Mikkola to help take the load off for now.
It worked in spreading the minutes out — with Mikkola, Forsling and Ekblad all clocking in around 23 minutes while Kulikov and Schmidt clocked in at 20 and 17 minutes respectively — but those five goals against were very glaring.
It’s a start in taking the load off of that top pairing, but a better effort is needed to survive this three-month stretch.
I really like Jordan Harris (22 CBJ). He is a left shot but he plays the right side. His advanced stats aren’t great but he has the skillset to play Mikkola.
He is stylistically similar to Forsling.
Excellent article Colby. Losing both Montour and Stolarz was big at the time and now is rearing it's ugly head. The amount of minutes played by Ekblad and Forsling is insane. You are so right about having Nate Schmidt and Dmitry Kulikov rotating in on the second pairing next to Niko Mikkola. Plus I think when the Panthers establish their style of play from the start of the game it really eases the pressure on the defense. We need the forwards to play a two way game like Barkov to ease the pressure on the defense. February is closer than you think and I trust Zito will pull off some of his magic.