Florida Panthers Should Start Shopping Mark Pysyk

With the progression and emergence of young, inexpensive defensemen such as MacKenzie Weegar and Josh Brown, the Florida Panthers should truly consider a trade involving Mark Pysyk.

Mark Pysyk, currently in his third season as a member of the Florida Panthers, has been continually regressing on a year-by-year basis, playing especially poorly during the 2018-19 campaign.

In 47 regular season contests, Pysyk has underwhelmed offensively, recording an underwhelming slash line of 0G, 7A, for 7 points.

His lack of success on the offensive end isn’t necessarily shocking, but he’s clearly performed equally as worse on the defensive end.

While averaging roughly eighteen and a half minutes of ice time on a nightly basis, Mark Pysyk has registered a subpar plus/minus rating of -2 (finished the 2018 season with a -8 rating). Evidently, Pysyk hasn’t provided stability on the second pairing of the Florida Panthers defense core.

The pairing of Mike Matheson and Mark Pysyk has arguably been the Florida Panthers’ worst defense pairing on the season.

The aforementioned pairing has relinquished an abundance of goals, high-quality scoring chances, and have turned the puck over rather frequently.

In fact, Florida’s third pairing of Ian McCoshen/MacKenzie Weegar and Josh Brown has outplayed its second pairing of Matheson and Pysyk by a drastic margin.

Essentially, the Cats should undoubtedly move Mark Pysyk as a means of providing their younger, more inexpensive defensemen such as Brown, Weegar, and McCoshen with some more playing time on a nightly basis.

The three have certainly outperformed Mark Pysyk by limiting scoring chances, turnovers, and goals. Ultimately, Pysyk has unequivocally regressed defensively, and shouldn’t be stealing minutes from Brown, Weegar, or McCoshen.

Moreover, by moving Pysyk’s contract, the Florida Panthers could further create more cap flexibility entering the 2019 NHL offseason.

General Manager Dale Tallon has stated how the team will certainly be aggressive during the free agency period, eyeing superstar caliber players such as Sergei Bobrovsky and Artemi Panarin.

Pysyk is currently earning a yearly salary of approximately $2.75 million (expires following the 2020 NHL season). The Cats could easily replace Pysyk with a cheaper and more productive defenseman such as MacKenzie Weegar.

Ultimately, Pysyk is indubitably an overpaid, replaceable defenseman who could potentially become traded during the NHL trade deadline period or the upcoming offseason.

Moreover, the potential trade compensation for Mark Pysyk would likely be in the ballpark of a third or fourth round draft selection, hypothetically speaking.

The Mark Pysyk experiment clearly hasn’t worked in Florida, so providing the veteran defenseman with a change of scenery would be best for both sides, quite frankly.

The Florida Panthers would benefit by clearing necessary cap space, providing a young defenseman with a starting nod, and gaining more draft capital, as well.

Regarding Mark Pysyk’s standpoint, he could potentially benefit by finding himself on a playoff or Stanley Cup contending team. He would certainly provide that team with a depth option who can blocks shots and kill penalties.

In essence, Panthers management should undoubtedly move on from the 27-year-old defenseman, as trading Mark Pysyk would seem like a highly plausible option at this point.

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