Seth Jones Learning Florida Panthers System in Increased Role

The Florida Panthers had to avert from their original plan of easing Seth Jones into their system with Aaron Ekblad and Dmitry Kulikov out. And they believe the best is yet to come.

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers planned on easing Seth Jones into their lineup after acquiring him from the Chicago Blackhawks on March 1. But that plan did not last long.

After losing Aaron Ekblad to a 20-game suspension and Dmitry Kulikov to an upper-body injury in the span of a week, the Panthers have relied on Jones to play top power play minutes, top penalty kill minutes and upwards of 30 minutes per night.

Jones has had some mixed results in that span — putting up a goal and three assists but clocking in a plus/minus of minus-5 — but the Panthers are fine with where he is at right now.

He had his best performance since Ekblad’s departure from the lineup in Sunday’s 4-3 shootout win over Pittsburgh. It was not flashy, but he gave the Panthers 30:40 of clean defensive hockey with a plus/minus of plus-1.

“He was at 30 minutes tonight and that’s what he is capable of doing,” coach Paul Maurice said after Sunday night’s shootout win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“This guy is a special player. We’re very excited that he’s not a one-off just finishing off the year. He’s part of our program now. A back-end, right-handed shot that can get up the ice the way he does. Eventually he will play behind Barkov, Bennett and Tkachuk and these guys and I think he’s going to be very lethal for us.”

Maurice knew it would take time for the former Chicago Blackhawks star to get used to the new systems in Florida.

In his words, it would take a year and a half.

That was why he decided to start Jones on the second pairing alongside Niko Mikkola when he arrived in South Florida in the first place. And he found a good rhythm in that role, clocking in a plus/minus of plus-3 in 21:04 of time-on-ice.

His time-on-ice figure has since ballooned up to 27:17 per night — the third-most in the league — since the departures of Ekblad and Kulikov.

Jones has shown flashes of dominance — particularly on the defensive end — at times, but the growing pains have also been clear.

“I think he’s a very good player,” Maurice said. “I think that there’s a tremendous amount more. I think Jonesy a year from now is going to be a dominant defenseman in this league. I truly believe that. But it’s going to take some time. We are not disappointed by any means, it’s just our view of him is very, very high and we think he can be special.”

Jones is playing meaningful hockey in March for the first time since his departure from the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2021. Ever since then, he has been a member of some young, rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks teams, and the Panthers knew that coming in.

But they also know the type of player he can be when he is playing with players of his caliber.

From 2018 to 2020, Jones put up 31 goals and 133 points in 209 games with a plus/minus of plus-21. That included two Top 10 finishes in Norris Trophy voting and a third appearance in the Top 15.

That is the player the Panthers believe Jones can be when he is fully up to speed with their system.

““We’re at a different place than those other programs. It’s not fair,” Maurice said.

“It sounds like I’m picking on those other programs, I’m not. But when you get a player like that and you an put him on the ice with four other guys that are in his ballpark in terms of development — Barkov’s in his prime, Jones is coming into his prime — you will eventually change the way you play because you can.

“Because you can get up the ice, you can anticipate things that are happening because the other four guys are getting the exact same thing every time and that’s where these guys get fast. It’s why Reinhart and Barkov are so good together. They have a really strong idea of what’s going to happen next. So, in a year’s time, it will be almost all instinct at that point. He is still learning those systems and he is still learning the different players we have and those top defensemen play off the people there play with. So it’s just time.“