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Florida Panthers: Tom Rowe Will Not Coach Next Season

By Daniel Janicas

Tom Rowe will not coach next season.
Tom Rowe will not coach next season. /
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This was the news all of us Panther fans have waited to hear for quite a while. Front office has decided not to keep Tom Rowe as head coach.

The news didn’t really come to surprised as anyone as Tom Rowe will not remain as coach for next season. Front office and management have clearly decided to hire some other candidate for the job. Tom Rowe will likely resume as General Manager next season.

After a year in which we should have made a cup run, we instead see ourselves drafting within the top 10. No one expected this to happen to us and we clearly fell short of expectations. Now after this disastrous year, we can finally move on from it and learn from our mistakes.

Moving Forward

Moving forward, there are some key areas we clearly need to address in the off-season. Firstly, a coach. As we saw the reports last night, Tom Rowe will not coach this team next season. In hindsight, this is actually a good thing seeing that the players did not respond well with Tom behind the bench. Nothing against Tom Rowe personally, I give him credit for stepping down from GM and taking on the role of head coach, but he clearly did not have the trust from the players.

When we look at coaching candidates, it’s very important to note that the candidate “must” have experience in the NHL. This team isn’t as young as it was two to three years ago, and players are starting to hit their mid 20’s. We aren’t rebuilding anymore, and we are in “win now” mode. With the future as bright as it is, it’s time to strike now. Some candidates to look at our Ken Hitchcock (if he doesn’t retire), Lindy Ruff (ties with Florida), and also Michel Therrien. Anyone of these coaches would surely fit the bill.

Next: Who Should The Florida Panthers Target As Their Next Coach?

Secondly, we could benefit from adding a couple of bottom six forwards. As we know, our bottom six could surely improve with some reinforcements. Our bottom six (mainly 4th line) failed to generate any cycle game going in the other team’s end. I don’t expect for our 4th line to be scoring the majority of the goals, but what I do expect is for our 4th line to generate more energy and spend some more time in the opponent’s zone. I won’t show our 4th line’s puck possession numbers, but they were awful. Some players we could add to our bottom six could be Nick Bonino, Justin Williams, or Radim Vrbata. Thomas Vanek should also be resigned short term as well, if we can.

Lastly, we need to balance out our defense more. If you look at our defense, we have amazing skilled players on our blue line. The issue with our defense is that we have too many “finesse liked players”. We don’t have enough body bruisers or defensive defenseman. Seeing that Petrovic will likely be taken in the expansion draft means we will need to replace him. Ian McCosen is someone who we can certainly replace Petrovic with. Ian has shown his defensive capabilities in the defensive end, along with his physicality. You could also pick up a guy like Michael Del Zotto, who has turned into a defensive guy. The cheaper and more affordable route would be to add defense within our own system (Springfield).

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Wrap Up

The Florida Panthers will surely be busy this summer, with very important decisions to be made. Everything I covered above, is what the Cats need to address in order to bounce back from this disastrous season. Other two areas that will need to be focused upon in the near future is the upcoming expansion draft (article coming shortly) and what to do with out first round pick.

If the Panthers can “re-tool” and find ourselves an experienced coach who can put a solid system for our guys to play, then I honestly don’t see why the Cats can’t make the playoffs next season, especially with all the talent that we have.

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