Florida Panthers’ New Coach Getting the Best of Denis Malgin
By Cal Friedman
Though frustratingly, the Florida Panthers are in a playoff spot towards the end of the opening month of the season, and one of the key contributors on offense has been a positive revalation.
In his fourth season with the Florida Panthers, Swiss forward Denis Malgin has quietly been off to one of his best months at the NHL level in his career. With 7 points across his opening 8 games, Malgin looks reborn under new Cats head coach Joel Quenneville.
Malgin’s first three seasons always showed signs of serious promise, but that’s all they were. Through analytics, he seemed a vital player to the team, but on paper, the results just never came.
The now-22-year-old was very frustrating to watch at times, as for every promising shift would follow a quiet two or three shifts. With 48 points in his first 148 games, Malgin never appeared to really find his footing under any of his first three coaches.
After splurging on four free agents, it took a while for the Panthers to clear enough cap to give RFA Malgin a new contract. During this time, some speculated whether the Panthers wanted Malgin back at all. His end product had been appauling, and it seemed as though Jayce Hawryluk and Brett Connolly were above him in the depth chart.
With new head coach Joel Quenneville, Malgin hasn’t just earned his spot back in the team, but is proving to be one of the better forwards in it. His three goals have all been very well taken, getting into great opportunities to score.
His positioning was always a strong point of his game, very effective at creating openings in the slot for himself and teammates. This made the lack of end product even more frustrating, because he was trying to score as many points as he could, yet never seemed to fufill what his potential expected numbers projected.
His goal versus Pittsburgh shows that kind of positioning. Fresh off a turnover forced by Jonathan Huberdeau, Malgin peels over to his stronger side.
With Kris Letang stuck in a two-on-one, Letang takes the puck, giving Malgin room to exploit. His awareness of the situation pays off as he quickly wrists home Huberdeau’s feed to put the Panthers up 2-1.
Next. Connolly Off to a Good Start with FLA. dark
If Denis Malgin can continue to put up these levels of performances, the Panthers will have a significant depth scorer throughout this season. Once Frank Vatrano gets going, he and Malgin could be huge pieces in the puzzle for the Panthers.