Writers' Poll: 5 burning questions heading into Florida Panthers 2023-24 season

Opening Night for the Florida Panthers is officially one week away.

We’ve hit the home stretch of the preseason, and the focus has begun to shift to the games that count.

Heading into the brand-new season, the Florida Panthers are a team that isn’t getting the same kind of respect that generally comes with being the defending conference champion.

This year’s THN Florida Writers’ Poll dives into several key questions regarding the Panthers and their quest to return to the Stanley Cup Final.

THN Florida’s David Dwork and Armando Velez are joined by Colby Guy, who covers the Panthers for Florida Hockey Now and the Palm Beach Post.

You can read their answers below:

Who will lead the Panthers in points by a defenseman?

David Dwork: When all is said and done this season, Brandon Montour will lead the Panthers defensemen in points for the second straight season. He may only play between 50 and 60 games, but his skating ability combined with how well he moves the puck are perfect for fueling the fire of Florida's offense. Retrieving pucks, moving quickly in transition and knowing where to be, and where the puck needs to be. Montour excels in these areas and that’s why he'll continue to pile up the points once he's healthy.

Armando Velez: The Panther defenseman who will lead the Panthers in points is Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Brandon Montour set the single season record for points by a defenseman with 73 (16 goals, 57 assists), 33 of those points on the power play. However, with Montour being sidelined until possibly mid-December, he would miss nearly 30 games of the season. Aaron Ekblad is also capable of scoring 20 goals in the season, but he is in the same boat as Montour where he will be missing time to start the season. Ekman-Larsson starting the season on the top pair on defense with Gustav Forsling and on Florida's first powerplay unit, there are a lot of points up for grabs, and a decent head start for the former Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes captain. It's been a while since his 55-point season in 2016, but some franchise turmoil with the Coyotes and the Vancouver Canucks, he is coming into a winning situation where Ekman-Larsson can feed to puck to two 40-goal scorers in Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe, and a guy who can score 40 when healthy in captain Aleksander Barkov. Sam Reinhart also has 32 power play goals in the last two seasons, which is a Panthers record for a two-year span. Ekman-Larsson’s situation around him is vastly improved. He also does not have to deal with constant turnover from coach to front office. He can focus solely on Paul Maurice's system.

Colby Guy: Gus Forsling: His offensive upside will really shine through in the first two months of the season and it will be too hard for any of the injured guys to catch up.

Will Sasha Barkov log his first 100-point season?

DD: No he probably won't, and that's only because I don't expect him to play 80-plus games. Barkov's game is one that is so exhausting and physically demanding, it doesn't seem reasonable to expect that he won't get nicked up here and there. Now, if Barkov finds the scoring touch that saw him pop in 39 goals during the 2021-22 season, all bets are off. That was a special year for a lot of reasons, but Barkov is still only 28 years old so it's not crazy to think there are still several big years left in him.

AV: If you go back to the first question, there is a mention of if healthy Aleksander Barkov can score 40 goals. He's been close twice, in 2019 and 2022. That 2019 season was the only time in which he played all 82 games. Barkov caught an unlucky break in 2022, where he missed 15 games that season. In 67 games, he scored 39 goals. A bit of regression in about the same amount of games played in 2023 where he finished with 23 goals. Let's consider that there was a coaching change and Barkov had to learn how to play with a new teammate in Matthew Tkachuk, and a new coaching system as well. Now that Barkov has familiarized himself over the last year, he will get to 40 goals (if healthy).

CG: Yes: If he stays healthy this year, it is 100 percent attainable. Having two speedy snipers in Carter Verhaeghe and Evan Rodrigues on his line will help. That is what suits his game the best.

What or who will the Panthers biggest X-factor be this season?

DD: The goaltending. Florida has a roster that is built to play the way Head Coach Paul Maurice wants, and they should be good enough to win most nights during the regular season. What can set this team apart will be its goaltending. Spencer Knight has looked locked in and ready to resume his promising young NHL career, but with starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, just like a box of chocolate, you never quite know what you're going to get. He always looks good during practice and is one of the hardest working guys on the team, if not the league, but the tangible results during his four seasons in Florida have been mixed. That is, of course, other than his play during the Panthers playoff run last season, which was possibly the best goaltending of the two-time Vezina Trophy winner's career. If Bob plays during the regular season anything close to the way he performed on Florida's playoff run, the sky is the limit for this team.

AV: Sergei Bobrovsky. Some might say Matthew Tkachuk coming off a 109-point season and being consistent even when the Panthers season was not looking promising last season. Truth is, you win with goaltending. For Bobrovsky to go from .901 save percentage in the regular season to .915 in the postseason was why the Panthers made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. When the Panthers were up a goal or tied and there was a breakaway, Bobrovsky stopped a lot of shots that you would not put blame on him for had those shots gone in, including going 55-of-55 at five-on-five against the Carolina Hurricanes in game one of the Eastern Conference Final, which he also had a shutout in game three of that same series. Biggest question is, will he keep that performance up going into this regular season? That question still remains.

CG: Anton Lundell: If he comes in and puts up 60 points, the Panthers will have one of the NHL's deepest forward cores. He showed that he could do it with his excellent performance in the Cup Final.

Will Sergei Bobrovsky win more or less than 25 games?

DD: I'm going to say less, but that's because I think he's going to start less games this season. As I mentioned earlier, Spencer Knight looks good to go and should get a good look in Florida's cage. While the general split will likely go something like two starts for Bob, one for Knight, I'd expect there to be runs where both goalies are given a chance to ride out hot streaks.

AV: Yes. He has only had a 25-plus win season once in a Florida Panthers sweater, which was the year that the Panthers won the Presidents' Trophy in 2021-22 and Bobrovsky had 39 wins. He's been close two other times (2019-20 and 2022-23). Although there are changes as far as who will be playing on the blue line to start the season, Bobrovsky has come up big multiple times during bad stretches. Is he prone to 4-goal performances that can put games out of reach? Sure, but every time there has been a threat for someone else to take his crease, he's responded. After Spencer Knight finished the 2021 playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Bob had 39 wins. Alex Lyon got the Panthers to the postseason last year, but Bobrovsky finished it off and gave the front office and coaching staff zero doubt of being the number one starter to begin the season. He is going to start at least 60-65% of the games. When it comes to goaltender wins, there are numerous variables as well. There might be a night where you give up four goals, but your offense scores six. The Panthers when it comes to offensive punch, have that. As mentioned, multiple 40-goal and 30-goal scorers on the roster that even if Bobrovsky has a bad night, they can still get him the win. The Panthers were also second in the NHL in goals from defenseman with 53. When Montour and Ekblad come back to the lineup, they have the ability to provide offense as well to put less pressure on the two-time Vezina Trophy winner.

CG: More: Even with Spencer Knight returning and looking to be in tip-top shape, Bobrovsky will still get the lion's share of the starts and if he is at least 75 percent of what he was in the playoffs, he can win 30 games behind that team.

Will the Panthers make the playoffs for the fifth straight season?

DD: Yes. This is as deep a forward group that the Panthers may have ever had. Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen are going to take big steps forward, just wait and see. The infusion of Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour should only pour gasoline on the fire. The Panthers are being underestimated, with their playoff run viewed more as an aberration than as a sign of things to come. We shall see.

AV: Yes. Making the postseason for the fifth consecutive season will continue their longest postseason streak in franchise history. Coming off a Stanley Cup Final appearance, it is understandable to say that a team could regress, especially with injuries. However, the biggest of pieces are healthy coming into this year. Matthew Tkachuk has healed from his broken sternum. Aleksander Barkov is likely to return to preseason action on Saturday, he will start the season. Bobrovsky did not give up a goal at five on five against Tampa Bay on Tuesday Oct. 3rd. The Panthers have players coming to South Florida with something to prove, like defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Forward Evan Rodrigues had his best seasons in these last two years, and he's expected to be on the same line as Barkov. The Panthers will have to hold the fort for a little while before getting some reinforcements back, but it would not be the first time as the Panthers did the same thing in 2022-23 with former Panthers forward Anthony Duclair, getting him back at around the trade deadline. With the Montour and Ekblad timeline being just before the clock strikes 2024, the Panthers will still have a lot of season in front of them if they do not fall apart early on.

CG: Difficult question considering the injuries on the blueline, but with the rest of the Atlantic Division elites regressing in the offseason, it is still a pretty easy yes. The Panthers have arguably the deepest forward group they've ever had (especially factoring in Mackie Samoskevich) and their defense and goaltending is good enough for them to survive without Ekblad and Montour for two months. Tampa Bay's loss of Andrei Vasilevskiy likely will prove to be more costly than Florida's loss at D. The Boston Bruins could also see a bit of a fall from grace with Patrice Bergeron and a slew of its depth options gone. With both of those things in mind, the Panthers are likely the second-best team in the Atlantic behind the Toronto Maple Leafs.