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EspañolVery little has gone right for the Florida Panthers this season.
Things started off horribly when star centre Aleksander Barkov went down with a serious knee injury in training camp, and everything has snowballed from there. Florida was also without Matthew Tkachuk for a huge chunk of the season, and other injuries started to add up and take a toll. Combine that with three lengthy playoff runs in a row, and it’s not all that shocking to see this season slipping away from the Panthers.
Florida is sitting eight points back of the cutoff line right now, which will force it to make some tough decisions leading up to the trade deadline. If the Panthers were to get in, they would certainly still be threatening, especially if Barkov returns, but to spend assets at the deadline in a season that may be too far gone doesn’t make a lot of sense. Instead, the Panthers could use this as an opportunity to reload for what will no doubt be a much more competitive and healthier team next year.
There aren’t a lot of players on this team with bad contracts you’d want to move off of, but one area they could look at is in goal. Sergei Bobrovsky is a pending UFA this summer, and if he’s not re-signed by next Friday, Florida could conceivably move him for something (he only has a 16-team no-trade clause) if the two sides are too far apart on term.
Panthers should deal Bobrovsky for an asset
A Bobrovsky extension could be a tricky contract to navigate for the Panthers. He’s currently making $10 million per season, and Florida will no doubt want him to take a paycut to remain with the team, though the question will be how much he is willing to take. The Panthers would probably be comfortable bringing him back on a one-year deal at $5 million or so, but given Bobrovsky’s age and resume, he may be looking for more than that and additional term.
Bobrovsky’s numbers haven’t been great this season, but he’s still coming off three very incredible playoff runs. It’s hard to imagine the netminder taking a massive discount, and if the two sides can’t come to terms, the Panthers would have to at least entertain the idea of moving on from him as opposed to potentially losing him for nothing.
Overreaction? No
The good news for the Panthers is they have a chance to get creative if a Bobrovsky move is on the horizon. Selling him off as a standard rental likely wouldn’t fetch a huge return, but there are other avenues they could go down to shore up their goaltending. Florida traded its first-round pick a year ago to Chicago in the Spencer Knight deal, though it’s top-10 protected. It’s conceivable the Panthers could fall out of it and end up with a pick somewhere in the eight-to-10 range that they could use to add a goalie to replace Bobrovsky. Jesper Wallstedt, Jordan Binnington and one of Toronto’s three goalies could be in play in a potential deal around draft time. Florida may have an opportunity to get younger and cheaper in net, while also picking up a piece in a Bobrovsky return.
There’s another scenario where it would make sense for Florida to move Bobrovsky. They could trade him and then re-sign him in the summer. We rarely see it happen, but the Panthers are the type of forward-thinking organization that probably wouldn’t shy away from attempting it. They’d need to get Bobrovsky’s blessing before doing it to ensure he’s onboard with the plan, but they have a chance to get an asset and then bring back a potential Hall of Fame netminder at a lower price.
Whether the Panthers will be playing hockey this spring remains to be seen, though I’d bet they’ll be active at the deadline either way.
Nazem Kadri is the perfect fit for the Avalanche
It seems only a matter of time before the Calgary Flames deal Nazem Kadri. Even though Kadri is 35 and has three more years remaining on his contract at $7 million per season, there will be no shortage of suitors for his services. The Flames forward has a unique blend of offence and physicality that is very effective for playoff hockey, and it was only a year ago that Kadri posted a career-high 35 goals. Colorado would no doubt have an interest in reuniting with Kadri, and with the familiarity between the two sides, it could be the perfect match to bolster the Avalanche centre depth.
Overreaction? Yes
The Avs have a very obvious need at centre — after Nathan MacKinnon and Brock Nelson, they boast Jack Drury and Parker Kelly. Both Drury and Kelly are fine players, but a team with Stanley Cup intentions like Colorado would ideally like to upgrade there. While Kadri would do just that and he’s had his most productive seasons with the Avalanche, that was four years ago and he’ll be 36 by the time next season starts. Even with the cap going up, the last couple years of Kadri’s deal could become very problematic.
Colorado is definitely in win-now mode, and it should be looking at centres, but there might be better options than Kadri. Someone like Vincent Trocheck is younger and comes cheaper than Kadri, while Ryan O’Reilly also has a smaller cap hit and less term. If the Avs are going to put together a package based around the limited assets they have, Kadri is probably a riskier acquisition than some other centres available.
Connor Hellebuyck has ended the narrative that he can’t deliver in big games
There were a number of players under pressure from both sides in last Sunday’s gold-medal game, but Connor Hellebuyck was right at the top of the list. The Winnipeg Jets goaltender hasn’t had a save percentage better than .886 over his past three playoff runs and was outdueled by Jordan Binnington at last year’s 4 Nations final.
However, there was no question who the best goalie at these Olympics was. Hellebuyck was not only sensational against Canada, making a handful of improbable stops, but he was also rock-solid all throughout the tournament. The 32-year-old posted a .956 save percentage and saved nearly six goals above expected. Without his paddle save on Devon Toews and his work on a lengthy five-on-three, there’s a very real possibility Team USA doesn’t have gold medals around its necks right now.
Overreaction? No
If you’re being doubted about your ability to win a big game, they don’t come much bigger than a gold-medal contest at the Olympics that goes to overtime. In addition to denying Toews of a sure goal, he also stopped Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini on breakaways to help the U.S. to the overtime victory. Even if Hellebuyck reaches a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Final at some point in his career with the Jets, you could still argue last Sunday’s game was more pressure-packed. The whole world was watching, and the Canadian team would be a far more talented and potent squad than any NHL opposition. Hellebuyck was also carrying the weight of trying to guide the U.S. to its first Olympic gold in 46 years, and he checked every box.
Avalanche will finish with the league’s worst power play
The Avalanche are one of the league’s most potent offences with arguably two of the top-five players in the world. Colorado leads the league in shots on goal per game, goals per game and goal differential at plus-75. But somehow, someway, the Avs are dead last on the power play at a shocking 14.8 per cent. It’s one of hockey’s greatest mysteries, as Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar alone should be enough to get just about any power play in the top 10 — not to mention guys like Brock Nelson, Martin Necas and Gabriel Landeskog who can also bolster the unit. You’d be hard-pressed to find more than a handful of other teams that can boast a top power play with more talent than that.
With only a month and a half to go, the Avs are running out of time to improve on their dismal rating. There’s a very real possibility Colorado could win the Presidents’ Trophy and finish last in power-play percentage.
Overreaction? Yes
Maybe the Avs don’t explode up the rankings with the man advantage in the final 25 games or so, but they should have enough talent not to finish last. There’s also a very real possibility that they add someone at the deadline who can help them on the power play and at least improve the unit somewhat. Teams like Philadelphia and Calgary, who are just ahead of Colorado, are also likely to sell pieces off, which could make their power play even worse going forward. Someone referred to Colorado on the power play as a fast-break offence that struggles in the half-court, and that’s the best explanation I’ve heard so far to something that seems otherwise unexplainable.
