Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald
Cali, look at the losses versus the gains. Florida is in for a rough ride this year. You can say that Tkachuk was a 100+ point player last season, but as a Flames fan you should also be able to look at his performance and recognize he was the third best player on his line. Tkachuk is not a play driver, he's a support player to a highly skilled linemate. Who of Duclair or Bennett is the play driver to make Tkachuk effective? That is a line of support players with no one to carry the puck and make sweet passes for Tkachuk to finish. The best linemate for Tkachuk is Barkov, and that would be putting all the eggs in one basket. Maybe Lundell can fill the need, but that is a big step up. Frankly, Tkachuk is on a line similar to that when he played with Backlund. I expect that level of production which is going to hurt.
The blueline is a huge weakness for the Panthers. The loss of Weegar really exposes a huge hole. They are nowhere near as good on the backend as they were last year, which is unfortunate, as they are going to need to keep more pucks out of the net as their offense is nowhere near as scary as it was last season. The combination of the changes in the lineup really makes the Panthers chance of a repeat very difficult, putting it politely.
The Panthers' saving grace is their division has some real weak sisters and several are pretty much out of the mix already. To make the post season the Panthers basically have to beat out Boston. The other teams are pretty much trash. I think the Panthers should grab that 3rd spot in the division, anything higher would be a big surprise.
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The one thing I think you're not taking into account is that Carter Verhaeghe had a monster playoff performance and seems poised to have a bigger year than he had last season. The Panthers likely won't win the PT this season, but they'll be one of the teams in the mix to win the east.