Slumping Panthers pivot towards trade deadline selling, potentially dealing top scorers and a Vezina-caliber goalie.
Things aren’t looking particularly good for the Florida Panthers and their hopes of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season.
Following Florida’s 5-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, the third straight for the Panthers, they fell 10 points behind the Boston Bruins for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.
It wasn’t that long ago that Florida was in a much better position with solid prospects of making the playoffs.
After winning a third straight game on Jan. 25, the Panthers were just three points out of a playoff spot with 31 games remaining on their schedule.
They have played 10 games since then, losing eight of them and leaving any hopes at reaching the postseason into extremely critical condition.
With the NHL’s annual Trade Deadline looming on Friday, it seems the Panthers may have played themselves out of being buyers and instead may be looking toward the future.
According to NHL insider Pierre LeBrun, Florida may be taking a selling position at the deadline.
That means pending unrestricted free agents Sergei Bobrovsky and A.J. Greer could be prime targets for teams looking to bolster their rosters ahead of the playoffs.
Greer, 29, is having the best season of his nine spent in the NHL, racking up career highs in goals (11) and points (22), and he’ll likely set a new mark for shots on goal in a season as well (he needs nine shots to break last season’s total of 86).
Bobrovsky, on the other hand, is having a regular season to forget.
Following Tuesday’s defeat to the Devils, Bobrovsky’s record dropped to 22-19-1. Through 43 appearance, Bob has skated to a career-worst .873 save percentage, and the only season he had with a higher GAA (goals against average) than his current 3.13 was during his first year with the Panthers, when it was 3.23.
Not since his second season in the NHL has Bobrovsky, who is 37 years old, had a save percentage lower than .900.
But Bobrovsky’s recent play during the postseason, where he’s been excellent, will keep him in high regard among potential playoff teams looking for help in the goaltending department.
While helping lead the Panthers to three consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances, Bobrovsky has been lights out between the pipes, cementing his place as one of the NHL’s all time great goaltenders and playoff performers.
He struggles this season could also be attributed to Florida playing with a roster missing several of their key pieces, as Sasha Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Dmitry Kulikov and Tomas Nosek all missed months upon months, with Tkahcuk only returning in January and Kulikov and Nosek in the past week, while Barkov remains on LTIR.
The thing about Bobrovsky is that he has a 16-team no-trade list attached to his contract, and he and his family are very happy in South Florida.
It’s where he and his wife Olya have started their family, with two daughters joining the Bobrovsky clan in recent years, and where Bobrovsky has reportedly said he wants to continue his career beyond his current contract.
How all of this plays out in the coming 48 hours will be very interesting to watch unfold.
Stay tuned.
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Photo caption: Jan 8, 2026; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Florida Panthers Sergei Sergei Bobrovsky (72) sprays his face with water against the Montreal Canadiens during the first period at Bell Centre. (David Kirouac-Imagn Images)