As soon as their disappointing season officially ends, the Florida Panthers will have to prepare for two drafts this offseason.
As we all know, the obvious two upcoming drafts are the 2017 NHL Entry Draft and the Vegas Expansion Draft. The rules allow teams to protect seven forwards, three defenseman, and one goalie, or eight skaters (position doesn’t matter) and one goalie.
The Cats will have five UFA(s), Jaromir Jagr, Thomas Vanek, Jakub Kindl, Shawn Thornton, and Reto Berra. With Thornton retiring and Berra likely going to Switzerland, of the remaining three, Jagr is the most likely to resign.
With previous deadline acquisitions who happened to have been free agents the next off-season (Hudler and Purcell last year) the Panthers did not resign them, so I don’t see the Cats retaining Vanek. With Kindl being awful, he will definitely not be back. Now, about the Cats RFA(s), these decisions will be a lot more complex. Five are in the NHL right now (Pysyk, Petrovic, Weegar, Sgarbossa, and Wilcox). I do not believe that both Pysyk and Petrovic will be donning a cats jersey next year, with Ian McCoshen and Mackenzie Weegar (if he is resigned) waiting in the minors.
The top five forwards the Panthers are most likely to protect will be: Huberdeau, Barkov, Trocheck, Marchessault, and Smith. Yes, as you might have noticed, Bjugstad is missing from those five. So for the last two forwards eligible for protection, these are the options: Bjugstad, Sceviour, MacKenzie, Jokinen. I believe that both Sceviour and Jokinen will be the last two protected. Tom Rowe not giving Bjugstad much playing time this year might be a clear indication of leaving Nick unprotected (hope this won’t be the case). Losing “big Nick” would surely hurt this team down the middle. When healthy, big Nick is a force to be reckoned with. On the other hand, It’s unlikely that Vegas will take Mackenzie. I wouldn’t worry there.
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Now, to the defenseman. As I stated earlier, the Panthers can protect up to three defenseman. The three most likely to be protected are Ekblad, Yandle, and Demers. Now, if the Cats decided to protect 4 defenseman and 6 forwards, I could see them possibly protecting Petrovic over Jokinen. This is an alternative route the Panthers could move towards.
So, of the unprotected defenseman I believe that Petrovic or Pysyk could very well be selected by the knights. It’s likely that we will lose a defenseman in the expansion draft after all. Look to see either Ian McCosen or Mackenzie Weegar step into the lineup, come opening night next year. Both are certainly NHL ready. Finally, this leaves one protected eligible goaltender. It’s most likely that James Reimer will be the goalie protected and not Roberto Luongo. James Reimer has been fantastic this year and has proven consistency over a respected stretch of time.
There ya have it folks! This is everything that the Florida Panthers can do for the upcoming expansion draft.