Bright future in Florida

The Florida Panthers fell to the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Finals dropping game five Tuesday, but the future could be bright for hte Cats.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli spoke about what’s next for the team decimated by injuries:

Tyler Yaremchuk: It was heartbreaking hearing Paul Maurice run down the list of injuries Matthew Tkachuk and Aaron Ekblad played through this postseason, but the future is bright in Florida. Is this Panthers team built for further success?

Frank Seravalli: They have put the Florida Panthers on the map. One of the most anonymous franchises of pro sports has now become a destination, I think. It was always an unreal place to live and play hockey thanks to Florida’s tax code, but, by the way, the team is really good now.

Part of that is from having had someone like Matt Tkachuk, a franchise player that they can continue to build around, choose the Florida Panthers. It is unbelievable that he played in Game 4 with a car crash type of injury, a fractured sternum, and even needed help putting his equipment on. He knew he couldn’t do that again for Game 5, and you mentioned Ekblad’s injuries dating back to the Boston series.

The amazing thing about where the Panthers are, Tyler, is that they were not building for this year. This season was just a roll of the dice where they wanted to get in as a seventh or eighth seed. They had dead cap space that they were dealing with and some tough contracts to wade through including that of Patrick Hornqvist. This is a team that made its last trade in December and really did nothing significant all season long because they were not sure they could compete.

Florida only made the playoffs because of Pittsburgh’s loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, and then they went on this magical run. Sergei Bobrovsky came alive, and for the core pieces around this team to know that they have Matthew Tkachuk is significant for this franchise moving forward. They figured they would get their guy and worry about everything else later. No one saw this run coming.

Down in the third period in Game 7 against the Boston Bruins, the flawless record that they had in overtime the entire playoff run, it was all magic. It wore off in the Final, and the injuries caught up to them, but with the way that this team is built and the cap space they have moving forward, Florida is going to become a go-to destination in the NHL.

Costs to be cut in Vegas?

While the Golden Knights celebrate their Stanley Cup title today, it won’t be long until they run into some issues.

Heading into this offseason, they have just $3.462-million in cap space. While that number could be as high as $8.462-million when LTIR placements occur ahead of next season, it’s not a spot any team wants to find themselves in.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, Yaremchuk and Seravalli spoke about what things could look like in Vegas:

Tyler Yaremchuk: If Lehner stays on LTIR, we’re talking about maybe $8.4 million. That could be enough to bring back both Barbashev and Hill. There’s a chance the Golden Knights run back the same roster!

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, I think they’re probably going to make some changes. I would be surprised if they don’t try and find a suitor for someone like Alec Martinez, as clutch as he was in the playoffs for them. I think he really slowed down at age 35 now, with $5.25 million left. He spoke after the game how trying the last year was with the concussion-like symptoms that he had.

There’s some other guys. Barbashev, I have a hard time believing they’re going to be able to find a way to afford him, and then you mention Hill and the goaltending. He’s not going to get a Jordan Binnington like payday, but I think the Golden Knights are going to be in pretty fine position when it comes to the goaltending space that they’re going to have definitely at least one more crack at it with this core to try and go out and chase a repeat title.