After having a fairly truncated 2022 playoff run as that season’s Presidents’ Trophy winners (being swept by in-state rivals the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round as the Bolts went to their third consecutive finals), the Panthers went on an impressive run to the Stanley Cup Final as the bottom seed in the Eastern Conference that began with them getting the better of the record shattering Boston Bruins in 7 after being down 3-1. It is clear that this team has established themselves as a respectable competitive force the last two seasons. Let us take a look at what next steps GM Bill Zito is taking to continue this team’s current trends towards success and what we can reasonably expect from the Cats going forward.

The first notable move by Florida was the trade of 27-year-old LW Anthony Duclair to San Jose. A sacrifice to the salary cap gods effectively, Duclair, while having missed a massive chunk of last year due to an offseason injury, proved to be a reliable player when available for the Panthers, scoring 31 goals in their Presidents’ Trophy season and 11 points in 20 games in this past year’s Cup final run. In return, the team received bottom-six forward Steven Lorentz and a 5th round selection in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft. This was a difficult early significant move to have to make for Zito. The team was in a compromised spot and effectively had to most likely lose a trade (only time will tell for certain) to San Jose GM Mike Grier to free up space. Perhaps having additional draft stock down the road will be helpful, but this was effectively being pressed to have to make a difficult choice with the salary cap realities of the NHL of the present day. Unfortunate for the Panthers that this had to be the first big headline of the summer of 2023 for them.

The biggest signing to this point by the Panthers is in the form of LW Evan Rodrigues, who they inked to a 4-year, $12 million deal. This was a decent move to address their forward depth. The former BU Terrier is capable of scoring upwards of 15 goals per season and has some pretty solid advanced stats, such as posting a 54.8% OZS and a CF% of 55.9%. Rodrigues has some pretty good upside and two-way play capabilities, but the eye test and raw offensive stats do not suggest that the 30-year-old is as productive as Duclair. It is a decent move to address their lack of forward depth, but not a great one. It seems to be a bit of a risky move, but we will see what Rodrigues brings to their forward group. In re-signing news, C Eetu Luostarinen was given a three-year extension with an AAV of $3 million which will begin in the 2024-25 season. The 24-year-old Finn is coming off a career season where he posted highs in every offensive category. He notably also scored the GWG against the Bruins in Game 6. A pretty good depth move to keep him locked down for a few more years.

Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad are both expected to miss the beginning of the coming year. As such, Zito has had to make moves to fill those spaces in the interim. One noteworthy signing is Vancouver Canucks buyout Oliver Ekman-Larsson to a one-year, $2.25 million deal. This past year was difficult for Ekman-Larsson. While noting that he was hampered by a broken foot recovery and subsequent ankle sprain, the Swede’s assessment by TheHockeyWriters was less than stellar and reasonably so. The now 32-year-old OEK had a hefty contract to play up to and had the following demerits to his statistical profile: “Ekman-Larsson found himself in the 24th percentile in defense among all defensemen at five-on-five (from JFresh’s paid Patreon subscription service). Falling below 76 percent of all NHL defensemen makes sense. He had 25 giveaways, 22 coming in the defensive end, with an unflattering 11 takeaways. He had a 47 percent Corsi For, which is bad for a defenseman who only started 12.8 percent of his shifts in the defensive zone, the third lowest of his career.” A rough picture, and this is in addition to a slide in his offensive productivity. It is possible that, at this stage, OEK can provide some reliable help on the power play, etc., for Florida, but there is some reason for weariness with this acquisition. The team is also bringing back a familiar face by way of Dmitry Kulikov on a one-year, $1M contract. As noted by FloridaHockeyNow, the 32-year-old Russian “has proven to be a solid depth defenseman who can put up around 20 points a year” and “was a defensive standout on an Anaheim Ducks team that gave up the most goals in the league and earned a chance to compete for a playoff spot after being acquired via trade by the Pittsburgh Penguins at the trade deadline.” It is not an earth-shattering move, but one that is a decent depth signing for the team’s needs at the moment. D Mike Reilly is being brought on to fill a similar role, and the team also signed G Anthony Stolarz to push for a backup position. D Niko Mikkola was a notable signing, the Finn was given 3 years, $7.5 million. Mikkola was, according to TheHockeyWriters, a slightly positive player in terms of preventing expected goals against with the Blues and played well enough to get trade interest, with him eventually being shipped off to the Rangers, playing a couple more minutes per night, and spending some TOI with Adam Fox. This could be a decent acquisition for Florida. C Kevin Stenlund has also been brought on in an effort to fill in space in their bottom-six at 1 year, $1M. Overall, a bit of a mixed bag for Florida in the transactions department, but perhaps more positive than negative.

The 2023 NHL Entry Draft was largely uneventful for Florida. They did not possess a first round pick and only had five selections total. The number 63 pick in the form of Seattle Thunderbirds C Gracyn Sawchyn is a respectable one, however. Sawchyn put up exactly a point-per-game last season in the WHL and posted a +36. He has been lauded for his hands and creativity. He makes for a solid day two selection, but might be the only real headliner. Swedish D Albert Wikman was their choice in the fourth round and he seems to be recognized as a serviceable positional defenseman in Färjestad BK’s pipeline. Another Swede, G Olof Glifford, has been putting up solid numbers in the HV71 system and was a decent selection in round 5. D Luke Coughlin from Rimouski Oceanic in the Q was selected in round 6 and has a similar player profile to Wikman. The team finished the draft by selecting F Stepan Zvyagin from Dinamo Minsk in the KHL. Zvyagin notably scored nearly a point-per-game at the MHL level, so he may have a better trajectory than expected. That said, this was a relatively quiet couple of days for Florida, as they simply had little draft capital.

Zito has done an okay job at positioning the team to remain competitive and vie for more glory, if not another Cup finals appearance. That said, the latter should be the bar that they set for themselves, and I do not think it is unambiguous that that goal can be achieved again in the near future. The team also was not positioned well in the draft and with their cap situation, and had a somewhat underwhelming performance in the former and perhaps could have worked better around the latter to this point. With that in mind, I think a C+ grade is about right for the Florida Panthers offseason to this point. They may be an intimidating matchup this coming season, but I think they are a bit short of being able to remain at the same compete level, especially as the Eastern Conference only continues to become more competitive.