Florida Panthers: Candidates to Break Out This Season

Every passing season, a new player surprisingly emerges for the Florida Panthers. This season, with the amount of talent on the roster, it’s going to be very competitive to see who will emerge.

The Florida Panthers have always been able to find players shockingly develop into punching well above their weight in points tallies. They have mostly been forwards, but there are lots of young players in the Panthers roster all around their core.

Four seasons ago, Reilly Smith, someone who struggled to score goals in his second season in Boston, emerged into a 25-goal scorer in Florida. Three seasons ago, Jonathan Marchessault, who failed to make a name for himself in Tampa Bay, surprised all of the hockey world by bagging 30 goals and 21 assists in 75 games in his one and only season with the Cats. Two seasons ago, Evgenii Dadonov returned from Russia with a point to prove, with 65 points in 74 games. Finally, Frank Vatrano banged in 24 goals, well above his previous career-high of 10.

With training camp well and truly underway, there are a lot of young players that appear to be ready to make the breakthrough. There has been a lot of hype around the forward core, but there is one defenseman who I think could break out.

Firstly, MacKenzie Weegar finally seems to have a spot nailed down. Weegar played plenty of games at the top four level next to Keith Yandle, performing well when he did. Weegar has also been developing his offensive game, and may likely hit a career-high in points this next season.

While he shouldn’t be playing on the top six this season, Weegar could definitely be one of the best defensive players on the roster and should be a player who can emerge for Florida this season and across the NHL.

In terms of the forwards, there are a lot of young forwards on the roster that might break out this season. Making a prediction on a lot of these forwards is going to be hard because so many are competing for the roster.

For example, Aleksi Heponiemi and Rodrigo Abols are both forwards that I personally am very excited about. Heponiemi, a former 2nd round pick, has looked fantastic for Finland in multiple international tournaments and seems an ideal forward for the modern day in the NHL with his good hands and playmaking.

Abols has been the more surprising emergence in camp. Signed on a two way deal for Florida after his performances for Denmark in international tournaments, Abols’ huge frame made him an ideal asset for positioning in front of the goal, drawing comparisons to someone like Brian Boyle.

The only issue with making too big of a projection with those two is how much time the two have at the NHL level this season. Heponiemi and Albols should be bigger effects next season, when players like Colton Sceviour and Denis Malgin (who should be the ones who feature on the bottom pairing this season), have their contracts expire.

For now, my prediction for the break out star of this season is Henrik Borgstrom. Despite the inconsistencies he went through in year one, year two should be much better for Borgstrom.

Borgstrom looks to be the perfect 3rd center for this team, with almost a full season of NHL play under his belt. With that experience, Borgstrom should fix those inconsistencies, have more stamina, and could be able to become a dominant bottom-six center.

Borgstrom should also be playing with a lot better linemates than last season. Brett Connolly and a mixture of Denis Malgin and Owen Tippett or even Heponiemi should give Borgstrom plenty of places to distribute the puck, taking attention off of him. His positioning has been very impressive so far, but he’s usually been the focal point at controlling the puck when he should be the one distributing and making space for his wingers.

The Finn should also be included on special teams when the Panthers are both up or down a man. To go along with his playmaking, Borgstrom has the defensive skill set to be a fair option for the 2nd center on the penalty kill over Vincent Trocheck.

Borgstrom has always shown promise, and now with a new coach that should drill his responsibilities into him, he should be able to fix those previous issues. Borgstrom’s role also fluctuated a lot last season, which should change this season.

If Borgstrom can break out and put up 40-50 points and be a consistent defender, which should be very possible for him, there’s going to be a massive difference in the way Florida can play this season.