Florida Panthers: Silver Linings if Panarin Doesn’t Sign in Sunrise

The Florida Panthers are coming off their most offensively successful season in franchise history. With a highly skilled top-six forward group, would it really be that bad if the Cats missed out on Artemi Panarin?

Let me start off by saying that I would love to see the Bread Man in a Panthers uniform. He’s obviously an elite superstar in the league and would no doubt bolster the team’s firepower.

However, if Florida fails to lure him in, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

According to CapFriendly.com, the Florida Panthers have just under $24 million in cap space entering free agency. If Dale Tallon and co. are successful in signing former Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, that would likely cut the team’s cap space to around $13-14 million.

The competition for Panarin’s services is steep. The Rangers, Islanders and most recently, the Avalanche have all been linked to the Russian winger and one would only assume they will put together an enticing offer for Mr. Panarin.

As much as it has been rumored, there’s certainly no guarantee that Florida will end up with this year’s top free agent.

Seeing as Panarin and his agent – Paul Theofanous – will have a handful of options come July 1st, it gives him a substantial amount of leverage in contract negotiations.

Panarin will be looking for around $11 million per year but, seeing as there is no state tax in Florida, the Panthers might be able to convince him to come on board for around $10 million.

Assuming the Cats bring Bob onboard, that would eat up the vast majority of the team’s remaining cap space.

As mentioned above, the Panthers already have a rock solid top-six forward group and with the likes of Owen Tippett, Aleksi Heponiemi, Grigori Denisenko, and Henrik Borgstrom poised to take the next steps in their development, top line offense should be the last of this team’s concerns.

The team’s defense and bottom-six production is a different story.

With the $10-11 million that would have to be spent on Panarin, the Panthers could instead shore up on the blue line and add a complementary piece to guide their up and coming prospects as they learn the NHL game.

Defensemen like Anton Stralman, Jordie Benn, and Jake Gardiner certainly don’t stir up nearly as much excitement as Artemi Panarin, but signing one of them could prove to be more beneficial to the team’s long-term vision.

They would obviously be much cheaper and the term of a potential contract would be much less than what Panarin will be looking for.

Even after bringing in one of the aforementioned d-men, Tallon would have around $7 million to play with and could turn his attention to the forward market.

Troy Brouwer led the way offensively for the Panthers’ bottom six last season recording 21 points in 75 games. It’s uncertain whether or not the team will bring him back but even if they do, those are underwhelming numbers that point to a clear deficiency on Florida’s roster.

I recently wrote an article titled “Three Under-the-Radar Free Agent Forwards to Pursue.” In it, I mention some names (Colin Wilson, Brett Connolly, Micheal Ferland) that I would like to see the Panthers target as we near July 1st. In the piece, I express a similar sentiment. Florida needs to address their secondary scoring.

Adding one player in Panarin would further stack Florida’s top two lines and will surely improve their roster, but the contract he will likely command could also handcuff the team in the future.

Again, Panarin will be looking for at least $10 million a year and will probably ask for the maximum seven-year term. How will that affect future contract negotiations?

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Well, both Mike Hoffman and Evgenii Dadonov have just one year remaining on their deals while Barkov and Trocheck have three. A potential Panarin deal will make it very difficult – if not impossible – to keep this core together long term.

It’s so hard to tell how the Panthers will look by the time the current leadership group is seeking contract extensions, but adding Panarin will no doubt muddy the waters.

I can’t stress this enough, I want to see Panarin bring his exceptional talent to Sunrise and feel the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Could you imagine how fun it would be to watch a team stacked with Barkov, Huberdeau, Dadonov, Hoffman, Trocheck, and Panarin? That would conceivably make the Panthers the top offensive team in the league.

However, if he chooses to accept an offer elsewhere, there are various other options for Panthers’ management to explore in search of players to bolster the team’s roster.

If the Russian superstar decides he doesn’t want to play in the sunshine state, it may very well be a blessing in disguise.

No matter what happens with Artemi Panarin, Panthers fans should not be too frustrated if he doesn’t sign in Florida. If Dale Tallon is a man of his word and plans to be aggressive, there are a plethora of avenues he could pursue to improve this edition of the Cats without sacrificing the future.