- Florida went 40-38-4 and missed the playoffs a year after back-to-back Cups
- Aleksander Barkov is back after a knee injury wiped out his entire season
- Read below for the full Panthers outlook and the goalie question in Sunrise
Aleksander Barkov is healthy and Brady Tkachuk is a Panther. That is Florida’s whole 2026-27 pitch, and it might be enough.
Last season was not enough. Florida went 40-38-4, finished seventh in the Atlantic and became the first two-time defending champion to miss the playoffs since the 1969-70 Canadiens.
Barkov was the first domino. The captain hurt his knee before the season started and never played a game.
Matthew Tkachuk missed time early too, and it never stopped. Nobody on the roster played all 82 games, and the Panthers lost 541 man games to injury.
Bill Zito’s response was to push in. Florida sent Ottawa a package of nothing but draft picks for Brady Tkachuk, putting the brothers on one roster for the first time.
The Senators are planning a tribute video for his first game back in Ottawa, trade request and all:
Barkov turned 31 on Wednesday, and the club marked it with an illustration of his trophy case, two Cups and a pair of Selkes included:
He is still the offensive engine on this team. Barkov ranks 24th in five-on-five points per 60 minutes among the 363 forwards with at least 1,500 minutes over the past three years, per Daily Faceoff.
Behind him, the depth is silly. Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe fill out the top six, and a third line of Eetu Luostarinen, Anton Lundell and Brad Marchand would headline most rosters.
Marchand scored 27 goals in 52 games last season at 37. Reinhart led the team with 61 points in 64 games.
Goaltending is where it gets uncomfortable. Sergei Bobrovsky signed in Toronto, so Zito traded for Jacob Markstrom and added Akira Schmid from Vegas.
Markstrom went 23-19-1 with an .883 save percentage behind a broken Devils team. Bobrovsky’s .877 was worse, and Florida is betting its structure turns that around.
Paul Maurice runs the bench again, 44 wins from becoming the third coach in league history to reach 1,000. Sunrise already has the countdown board under a month:
Florida opens Sept. 29 in Raleigh, where Carolina raises its Stanley Cup banner. The Panthers get to watch that ceremony from the visitors’ bench.
