The Montreal Canadiens have been having their way with the Florida Panthers over the past two seasons, but that might not be the case this year.
In the last two seasons, the Montreal Canadiens made the playoffs, and their dominance over their divisional rival, the Florida Panthers, was a big part of that. The Habs have won their last seven games against the Cats. This past season, Montreal outscored Florida 13-7, while the January matchup ended 6-2; the other two games didn’t finish in regulation. The April bout was ultimately decided in a shootout, while the December meeting went into overtime.
Back in 2024-25, the Tricolore played four games against the Panthers and outscored them 14-5. Montreal blanked the Panthers 4-0 in their first matchup of the season, before winning 3-1 at home and 4-2 in Florida in March. They then wrapped up the season series with another triumph, this time at the Bell Centre by a score of 4-2. Back then, Florida was the two-time defending champions and being able to handle them like that was a big confidence builder for the young Habs.
Looking ahead to the 2026-27 season, however, it looks like winning against Paul Maurice’s team won’t be quite that easy. After missing the playoffs last season, there won’t be any bumps or bruises left on the Panthers. Captain Aleksander Barkov sat out the entire season after undergoing knee surgery on both his ACL and his MCL, but he’ll be back with a vengeance.
Barkov won’t be the only addition, though; Bill Zito was able to add some more sandpaper to a team that hardly needed any more when Brady Tkachuk essentially fell into his lap after forcing his way out of Ottawa. The younger Tkachuk will join big brother Matthew and effective pest Brad Marchand, who’s just not slowing down despite being 38 years old. Last season, he put up 54 points in just 52 games; one can wonder if he would have kept up the same pace in 82 games, but it’s far from impossible that he would have. As for the older Tkachuk, he played only 31 games due to an injury, but he still put up 34 points. Those are three players who know how to get under your skin, and it will take a lot of self-control not to fall victim to their antics.
On July 1, they also added some depth at center, signing former Hab Lars Eller to a one-year deal at just $850,000. He may not put up many points, but he’s an effective player on both sides of the puck and highly responsible defensively. Since they knew they couldn’t afford to sign A.J. Greer to a new contract, they traded for Garnet Hathaway, who will replace Greer’s physicality, though he’s unlikely to be as productive.
On the blueline, Zito added even more physicality by signing Radko Gudas as a free agent. He may only be a third-pairing guy, but he knows how to lay down the boom effectively and punish his opponent’s forwards. Just like Marchand, Zito signed him to a long-term contract he probably has no hope of playing through, but it allowed the Panthers to spread out the money they have to pay him, bringing his cap hit down to just $1.5 million.
The offseason isn’t over yet, though, and the Cats have only $1,221,786 in cap space while still needing to sign a backup goaltender. They didn’t re-sign Sergei Bobrovsky, but they traded for Jacob Markstrom, who has a $6 million cap hit over the next two seasons. While he’ll be looking for a bounce-back season after only winning 23 games with a 3.07 goals-against average and a .883 save percentage, he has won his last four games against the Habs.
The Cats have also acquired goaltender Akira Schmid from the Vegas Golden Knights, but he’s an RFA right now and has filed for arbitration. The hearings are set to take place from July 20th to August 1st, so they should get some clarity on the net front sooner rather than later. Depending on the result, Zito may be forced to make another move as teams are allowed to go over the cap during the offseason, but they’ll have to be cap-compliant by the time the season starts.
Wherever you look in the Panthers’ lineup, there doesn’t seem to be any weakness. Meanwhile, Kent Hughes has yet to address any of the Canadiens’ needs this offseason. The GM is after a top-six forward (a center wouldn’t go amiss, but the Habs would settle for a winger if he were impactful), a top-four right-shot defenseman, and some more grit for the bottom six.
Of course, the offseason is far from over, but when you compare the Canadiens’ lineup to the Panthers, you get a sense of how much the Habs are missing to really ice a contender. That was also made clear by the Carolina Hurricanes' dominance in their third-round series. Hughes has a lot of futures to trade, but as he has said himself, there aren’t that many rebuilding teams looking for what he’s selling right now. There’s no doubt that this makes his job harder, and with the Canadiens making the Eastern Conference Final last season, other GMs aren’t exactly keen on helping the Habs improve. Still, the GM will need to find a way if he wants his team to keep improving. There’s only so much organic growth can do.
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