Wednesday’s Florida Panthers offseason chatter comes with a bold ceiling and a pretty ugly floor, at least in Sportsnet’s Ryan Dixon’s view.
Dixon’s best-case scenario for Florida is another run all the way to the Stanley Cup Final - specifically, a fourth trip in five seasons. His worst-case outcome? “Big-time Bobrovsky regrets.”
On paper, the Panthers look built to jump right back into contender territory after an injury-hit season that kept them out of the playoffs. Dixon goes even further than that, suggesting they might be the Cup favourites. The group in front of the net, he wrote, is “bulletproof” and tailor-made for the grind of the postseason.
That outlook only gets more interesting with Brady Tkachuk now in the mix. Dixon pointed to Florida’s long layoff - a stretch that wasn’t planned, but did give the group time to rest and recover after three straight finals - as another reason the Panthers could be lined up for more success in South Florida.
Dixon listed Florida’s key additions as Brady Tkachuk, Jacob Markstrom, Radko Gudas, Garnet Hathaway, Akira Schmid and Lars Eller. The key subtractions were Sergei Bobrovsky, Evan Rodrigues, Mackie Samoskevich, A.J. Greer and Daniil Tarasov.
The Panthers’ cap space today sits at $34,286.
Elsewhere around the league, the Boston Bruins signed Fraser Minten to a seven-year, $50.4 million extension with a $7.2 million average annual value after he posted 17 goals and 35 points in 82 games last season.
The Carolina Hurricanes added Pierre-Olivier Joseph on a one-year, $850,000 contract. Joseph had one goal and five assists in 31 games with the Vancouver Canucks last season.
And the San Jose Sharks signed Ilya Samsonov to a one-year, two-way deal worth $850,000. Samsonov appeared in 14 games with HK Sochi of the KHL last season, finishing with a 3.27 goals-against average, a .903 save percentage and one shutout.
In Other News...
Brad Marchand Is Already Stirring Drama Around The Brady Tkachuk Trade
With Brady Tkachuk now in Florida, the Ottawa Senators are sorting through what comes next at captain, and Brad Marchand is already finding a way to make himself part of the conversation. The Panthers forward popped up in social media comments tied to the leadership discussion, and the exchange quickly drew attention because it landed right on one of the most delicate subjects in Ottawa this spring.
Tim Stutzle addressed the remark by brushing it aside, saying he does not care and still respects Marchand as a player. Drake Batherson, who knows Marchand well as a teammate and neighbor, also weighed in by pointing to this sort of behavior as nothing new, which only added another layer to a storyline the Senators probably would have preferred to keep internal. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Fans Just Got A Painful Reminder About Sergei Bobrovsky
Sergei Bobrovskys name is back in the spotlight for Panthers fans, and not in a way that makes the offseason sting any less. After Toronto signed the veteran goalie to a three-year contract, Aleksander Barkov spent some time at the NHL Player Media Tour reflecting on what Bobrovsky meant during their years together in Florida, offering a reminder of how much the goaltender shaped the Panthers rise.
Barkov praised Bobrovskys leadership, work ethic and the example he set in the room, noting the impact he had both on and off the ice. For a team that leaned on him through a long run together, those comments only reinforce how much Florida is losing in the rearview mirror, even if the full measure of that partnership is still the kind of thing Panthers fans will keep revisiting. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers May Have Found A Late Pick Worth Watching Closely
The Panthers may have landed a late-round forward worth keeping on the radar in Cole Zurawski, who was taken in the sixth round of the 2026 NHL Draft after a productive season with the Owen Sound Attack. He finished with 24 goals and 22 assists in 63 games, the kind of numbers that tend to draw more attention from a team willing to mine value outside the top of the draft.
Zurawski has already gotten a look at Florida's development camp, which gives the organization an early chance to see how his game translates beyond junior hockey. His path is still at the beginning stages, and with a future at Notre Dame already mapped out, the bigger question for the Panthers is how much more he can grow before the club has to start thinking seriously about where he fits in their pipeline. [Read more 🡒]