2009-2010 Florida Panthers Preview

No team has a longer postseason drought in the NHL than the Florida Panthers, who have missed the playoffs in eight consecutive seasons! It really isn’t a surprise though as they’ve struggled through what seems to be an endless rebuilding cycle that always results in trading away their best players in March. After competing for a postseason berth for the first time in years last season, can the Panthers get over the hump?

Looking Back at 2008-2009

Florida was actually a competitive team last season, which is more than they can say the rest of the decade. The Panthers took the risk of not trading star defenseman Jay Bouwmeester at the deadline and went for broke, only to fall short of the final playoff berth on a tiebreaker with Montreal. The Panthers’ 41-30-11 record gave the team 93 points but Montreal’s 3-1 record in head to head play was the difference and the season ended early in south Florida.

The Offseason

Florida’s gamble on retaining Bouwmeester didn’t leave them empty-handed as they traded his rights a few days before free agency began to Calgary for defenseman Jordan Leopold and a draft pick. Furthermore, they picked up veteran goalie Scott Clemensen to fill a needed backup role. However, the Panthers allowed a number of players to depart and their roles are going to be filled from within the organization.

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2009-2010 Outlook

For the Panthers’ offense to break out this season, two things need to happen. One is that speedy young winger David Booth needs to continue his development and break into the 40 goal range. The other is that prodigiously talented center Stephen Weiss needs to finally become the elite playmaker that he has the potential to be. Weiss’ 2008-09 season was actually pretty good, scoring 14 goals and assisting on 47 others, but it still seems like he’s only scratching the surface of his potential after half of a decade in the league. With a strong group of depth players around him, including Corey Stillman, Nathan Horton and new acquisition Stephen Reinprecht, his development could allow the Panthers to go from average to excellent on offense. Despite finishing in the middle of the league in scoring, the Panthers didn’t have a single player in the top 60 in scoring last year and are badly in need of a superstar’s touch up front.

The defense is much more of a concern. New captain Brian McCabe is a solid but unspectacular veteran and really you can say the same thing about the rest of their defenders. This is an average group of defensemen outside of up and comer Keith Ballard and the Panthers will have to hope that some of their young prospects, most notably Keaton Ellerby, will be able to contribute this season because there isn’t any elite talent on hand. It isn’t a surprise that the Panthers gave up more shots than anyone in hockey last season.

In goal, the Panthers are lucky to have Tomas Vokoun, who gets a bad rap because his record was barely .500 last season. In reality, Vokoun was sprayed with 32 shots per appearance last year and his .926 save percentage was actually quite impressive. Expect more of the same with the defensemen in front of him this season and he’ll have to stand on his head once more to keep the Panthers in games.

PREDICTION: There just isn’t anything really noteworthy about this team outside of David Booth’s excellence and Weiss’ enormous potential. Florida has average defensemen and was average in scoring last year. Furthermore, their goalies get shelled every game and you can’t expect to win games if you’re routinely giving up 10 more shots than you take. Unless Weiss finally morphs into the star that he has the potential to be and turns Booth and Horton in 40 goal scorers, I think that the Panthers are in for a tough year. I don’t expect the proverbial light bulb to come on for Weiss and because of it I expect Florida to fall to the basement of the Southeast Division their playoff drought will continue.

By Matt Baxendall
DFN Sports & ProHockey-fans.com Staff Writer

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