Florida Panthers: Highlighting Evgenii Dadonov’s Solid 2019-20 Season

With the season coming to a close due to the Coronavirus pandemic, we will be highlighting yet another phenomenal season from winger Evgenii Dadonov.

The 2020 NHL campaign was essentially a contract year for the impending unrestricted free agent Evgenii Dadonov. With the pressure of free agency, Dadonov ultimately performed exceptionally well for the Florida Panthers for the third consecutive season.

Since signing a three-year contract with the Cats during 2017 offseason, the native of Russia has been a model of consistency and a staple on the first line for Florida. The 2018 and 2019 seasons were unexpectedly superb for Dadonov, recording point totals of 65 and 70, respectively.

However, the 135 total points over the 2018 and 2019 seasons did not result in any playoff berths for the Panthers. But, due to the current circumstances, the Panthers received an opportunity to play in the qualifying round in order to qualify for the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The success experienced by the Cats during 2020 can largely be attributed to the brilliant contributions from Dadonov. While participating in 69 regular season games in the shortened 2020 campaign, Dadonov recorded a solid statistical slash line of 25 goals as well as 22 assists for 47 total points.

While the assist and point totals were certainly down from the previous two seasons, Dadonov was on pace to establish a new career high mark in goals. Moreover, Dadonov proved to be a highly lethal weapon on the man advantage for the Cats, recording a career high mark of 11 power-play goals in only 69 games played (scored a total of 14 power-play goals during the past two seasons).

In addition, despite playing even less minutes (roughly 17 minutes per game), Dadonov continued to thrive and produce admirably in a top-six role as well as on the team’s first PP unit. Furthermore, the Russian native also established a career high mark in regard to shooting percentage at approximately 15%, while playing a solid two-way game for the Cats.

Essentially, Dadonov will likely finish in the top 15 in voting for the Lady Byng Award, recording only 10 penalty minutes while playing tremendously on both ends of the ice with FLA. The recently turned 31-year-old Panthers draftee will undoubtedly play a crucial role for the Cats once the NHL officially returns to action.

In fact, the Panthers will rely heavily on the offensive prowess of Dadonov in their impending play-in series versus the defensive juggernaut in the New York Islanders. With the play-in round being in a best-of-five format, Dadonov must continue to serve as an imperative power-play specialist and top line goal-scoring, playmaking winger.

The Barkov-Dadonov tandem has been extremely reliable and consistent over the past three NHL seasons, and must unquestionably be a driving force for the Panthers moving forward if they hope to advance past the qualifying round. Nevertheless, considering Evgenii Dadonov will become an unrestricted free agent once the 2020 playoffs conclude, Panthers management must perform everything in their power in order to retain Dadonov’s services.

Ultimately, Dadonov unsurprisingly had another sound campaign for the Florida Panthers in 2020. In short, Dadonov is an essential part of Florida’s present core of talented forwards and should be retained on another team-friendly, three-year deal if possible. If the Panthers do manage to make some noise this summer, be sure to see Dadonov’s name at the forefront.