The Florida Panthers are set to open the season on the road, with dates against the Carolina Hurricanes, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings already on the board. The rest of the NHL regular-season schedule will be unveiled this afternoon, and the league will pair the 1 p.m. release with a one-hour special edition of “NHL Tonight” on NHL Network, hosted by Jamison Coyle, Thomas Hickey and E.J.
Hradek. The show will also stream on NHL.com.
For Florida, though, the bigger story is the one NHL.com’s Amalie Benjamin put front and center in her Team Reset piece: health.
That’s the area the Panthers need most heading into the next campaign, and the injury list from last season tells the story. Aleksander Barkov’s year was wiped out after he suffered a knee injury in training camp and underwent ACL and MCL surgeries on his right knee.
Matthew Tkachuk missed the first 47 games after offseason surgery, and the absences kept piling up as the year went on. Seth Jones, Tomas Nosek, Dmitry Kulikov, Jonah Gadjovich, Sam Reinhart, Brad Marchand, Anton Lundell and Rodrigues all missed time at different points.
The Panthers still have what Benjamin described as a potential championship roster, one that was rebuilt in the offseason. But the formula only works if the injury problems ease up.
Elsewhere around the league, Trevor Zegras avoided arbitration by landing a four-year, $36.5 million deal with the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday. Zegras posted NHL career highs with 26 goals and 67 points in 81 regular-season games last season, then added six points, including two goals and four assists, in 10 playoff games.
Cole Perfetti also stayed out of the arbitration process, signing a five-year, $30 million contract with the Winnipeg Jets. The 24-year-old restricted free agent had 12 goals and 32 points in 68 games last season.
Anthony Mantha found a new home as well, agreeing to a two-year, $9.5 million contract with the New Jersey Devils. The 31-year-old forward set NHL career highs with 33 goals, 31 assists and 64 points in 81 regular-season games for the Pittsburgh Penguins last season and chipped in one assist in six postseason games.
The Columbus Blue Jackets and forward Luke Tuch reached a two-year, two-way agreement with an average annual value of $875K at the NHL level. Tuch finished with nine goals, five assists and 82 PIM in 68 games for the AHL’s Laval Rocket in 2025-26.
And on the entry-level front, Alberts Smits signed with the New York Rangers, Marcus Nordmark with the Anaheim Ducks, Elton Hermansson with the Minnesota Wild, Juho Piiparinen with the Vegas Golden Knights and William Håkansson with the Carolina Hurricanes.
In Other News...
Panthers Fans Still Can't Agree On What Bobrovsky's Final Season Meant
Sergei Bobrovskys final season in Florida still has plenty of people arguing over what it really meant, and Darren Pang is firmly in the camp that sees more context than decline. The former NHL goaltender and broadcaster pointed to Bobrovskys recent stretch with the Panthers as a product of the team around him, not a sudden drop in his own game, while still crediting the veteran for the kind of leadership and presence that can matter just as much as the saves.
Pangs view is that Bobrovsky should have a chance to reset after signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he believes the goalie has enough left to answer the doubts that followed him out of South Florida. For Panthers fans, it is another reminder that Bobrovskys legacy here is not easy to pin down, especially when the conversation keeps circling back to how much of last season belonged to him and how much belonged to a battered, fading roster. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Schedule Just Put Several Emotional Dates On Every Fan's Radar
The Panthers 2026-27 schedule is out, and it comes with the kind of dates that immediately jump off the page for a fan base that has lived plenty of recent history. Florida opens on Sept. 29 at home against the Carolina Hurricanes, then settles into an 84-game slate that includes 42 home dates and a few stretches designed to keep Amerant Bank Arena busy for long runs at a time.
There are also the emotional return trips that make a schedule release feel a little more personal than usual. Evan Rodrigues is slated to come back to Sunrise with the Devils on Feb. 18, and the calendar is dotted with two five-game homestands that will keep the Panthers in front of their own crowd for extended stretches. For a team that has built so much of its identity around continuity, these are the nights that will carry a little extra weight when they finally arrive. [Read more 🡒]