With their 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night time, the Florida Panthers cemented their standing as one of many NHL’s all-time nice groups. They’re simply the seventeenth staff to ever win back-to-back championships — and solely the fifth since 1990 — and at the moment are the gold normal for successful within the present-day NHL.
They bought right here by way of a masterclass in roster-building that blended some good draft luck, large NHL scouting and an aggressive mindset that by no means left the group happy with simply merely being ok.
They made their necessary draft picks depend
The one factor that may be a little totally different about this Panthers staff when in comparison with a whole lot of the opposite champions is that solely 5 gamers on the staff — Aleksander Barkov, Aaron Ekblad, Mackie Samoskevich, Anton Lundell and Dmitry Kulikov — had been truly drafted by the Panthers. And in Kulikov’s case he left the Panthers for a number of years earlier than just lately returning, whereas Samoskevich has solely appeared in 4 playoff video games.
Barkov, Ekblad and Lundell are the one draft picks by the staff taking part in main roles. However they’re massive roles. All three of them had been first-round picks, with Barkov and Ekblad being top-three picks of their respective draft courses.
When groups are fortunate sufficient to be in these draft positions they should hit house runs with them to construct a contending roster. The Panthers did, and particularly so with Barkov. He has turn into top-of-the-line two-way facilities within the NHL, mixing top-line offense with elite protection to make him an ideal franchise cornerstone.
They established a transparent identification
Loads of groups speak about having an identification, or need to have an identification, however few groups are in a position to pull it off in addition to the Panthers have.
Their expertise speaks for itself, and is the most important a part of their success, however in addition they have a really clear taking part in model that administration has tried to domesticate.
That taking part in model — imply, nasty, perhaps even somewhat soiled. Getting gamers like Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk and Brad Marchand helped make the Panthers not solely one of many deepest groups within the NHL, but in addition one of many fiercest and most annoying to play in opposition to.
Not each staff must play that manner or be constructed that manner. However it helps to have a normal of what you are on the lookout for — it doesn’t matter what it’s — and no staff has pulled that off higher than the Panthers.
At all times an all-in mentality from administration
There are a whole lot of trades and free-agent signings which have turned the Panthers into the staff they’re, however there are a handful that basically helped set the tone for administration’s all-in mentality.
The primary was after the 2021-22 season when Florida was coming off a Presidents’ Trophy successful marketing campaign. Regardless of having the most effective document within the NHL, administration was not happy with dropping within the first-round of the playoffs. It responded by buying and selling one of many staff’s high gamers — Jonathan Huberdeau — to the Calgary Flames for Tkachuk in one of many NHL’s greatest current blockbusters. That not solely helped set its identification, but in addition gave it one other top-tier star.
Then at this yr’s commerce deadline the Panthers made two extra all-in strikes to get defenseman Seth Jones and Marchand in separate offers, making a staff that was already a champion even higher.
Their NHL scouting has persistently hit house runs
High draft picks and massive trades are necessary, however hitting surprising house runs can be an enormous assist. And the Panthers have a number of of these. Once they acquired Sam Reinhart from the Buffalo Sabres, he was removed from the participant he’s now. He was an excellent, if disappointing former No. 2 general choose in Buffalo. Gustav Forsling, now a high defender, was a waiver declare. Carter Verhaeghe has been a top-line participant in Florida however was organizational depth in Tampa Bay.
