SUNRISE, Fla. — Florida Panthers fans can finally exhale.
And unfortunately, the Panthers will not complete the three-peat, something that hasn’t been done since the New York Islanders won four straight Stanley Cups from 1980 to 1983.
An injury-plagued season comes to a close Wednesday against the Detroit Red Wings at Amerant Bank Arena, marking the Panthers’ first non-playoff season of the Paul Maurice era and their first since 2018–19.
“Not the year that anybody wanted individually or collectively, but there’s a lot we can learn from this year,” forward Matthew Tkachuk said Wednesday after morning skate.
Already without Tkachuk and Tomas Nosek to start the season, the Panthers first lost Aleksander Barkov, who missed the entire year after tearing the ACL and MCL in his right knee on the first day of training camp in September.
The list grew substantially.
Throughout the season, the Panthers were without several key contributors from their back-to-back Stanley Cup championship teams, including Sam Bennett (lower-body injury), Carter Verhaeghe (lower-body injury), Aaron Ekblad (finger), Jonah Gadjovich (upper-body injury), and Seth Jones (foot), among others.
Regardless of Wednesday’s result, the Panthers will finish with their lowest point total under Maurice - and their lowest since closing the 2020-21 campaign with 79.
The offseason will mean extra rest for a team that has played into June four seasons in a row, but it will also require making important decisions on players hitting the open market.
When the Panthers take the ice in October to begin the 2026–27 season, most of their core players will be there: Barkov, Tkachuk, Reinhart, Bennett, Verhaeghe, Marchand, and others under contract for the foreseeable future.
But once the offseason begins, Florida will not have a starting goaltender locked in for 2026–27.
That means both Sergei Bobrovsky and Daniil Tarasov, who is starting the season finale, will be unrestricted free agents.
If a player is an unrestricted free agent, they can sign with any team once their contract expires. Their current team has no right to match offers or receive compensation in most cases.
A restricted free agent, on the other hand, means the player’s current team retains negotiation rights.
If another team offers a contract, the original team can match the offer to keep the player. If they don’t match, they may receive draft compensation.
The Panthers have several restricted free agents they must address: Mackie Samoskevich, Wilmer Skoog, Mikulas Hovorka, Tobias Bjornfot, Donovan Sebrango and Michael Benning.
Bobrovsky has been very open with the media, saying he loves the Panthers, feels blessed to be the starting goaltender, and would like to remain in Florida.
In the few times president of hockey operations/general manager Bill Zito has spoken to reporters, he has emphasized how much Bobrovsky means to the organization.
“That’s just something we’ll sort out after the season,” Zito said. “I’d like to keep him. I hope we can. We’ll see what happens.”
Florida is set to enter the long offseason with a projected salary cap space of $13,812,500 for next season, according to PuckPedia.
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