It’s been a bit of a grind to start the 2025-26 campaign for the Florida Panthers. The back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions sit in 5th place in the Atlantic Division with a 6-5-1 record as of time of writing, and are currently one point behind both wildcard spots and the 3rd place Ottawa Senators. The sluggish start is somewhat to be expected, considering the Panthers have been without their two franchise cornerstones in Sasha Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk. Tkachuk is expected to return sometime in the December-January range, after undergoing offseason surgery to repair a torn Adductor he suffered at the Four Nations Faceoff, and played through during the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Meanwhile, Barkov is not expected to return anytime during the regular season, as he recovers from a torn ACL/MCL, which he suffered on the first day of Training Camp. After 12 games, here are my thoughts so far:

OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES

Arguably, the biggest reason for the Panthers struggles this season is their anemic offense. Naturally, the offense was expected to suffer from being down a combined 42 goals and 128 points in 119 games between Barkov and Tkachuk last season, but the Panthers have really been slumping to score. The team is 29th in Goals For Per Game, averaging 2.50 goals per game. The numbers reflect that, too. Only Brad Marchand is above a point per game on the roster, with 12 points in 11 games. The good news for the Panthers is that Marchand is finally starting to get some support, after carrying the offense through the first eight games of the season. After only putting up 2 goals and an assist in his first four games, Sam Reinhart has now scored in four straight games. This is critical, as Reinhart has been the team’s leader in both goals and points each of the last two seasons, with him leading the team in goals by a country mile in both Cup winning campaigns. Without Barkov and Tkachuk, Reinhart is arguably the team’s best player, and his recent hot streak is welcome news for a beleaguered offense. However, there are still some sour notes.

After a Conn Smythe campaign earned him an 8 year contract extension, Sam Bennett started the season as the team’s #1 center. Bennett’s start to the season hasn’t gone to plan, with Bennett struggling mightily, only scoring 2 goals with an assist through 12 games, and being demoted to 3rd line center duties. Bennett broke a 7 game goalless drought last night against Dallas, but if you look at his career numbers, even in his most productive seasons, he has never been near a superstar level producer, with only one season eclipsing 50 points (2024-25), in which he had 51 . However, Bennett has hit the 20 goal mark in three of his four full seasons so far in Sunrise, so hopefully the tally against Dallas gets him going. As I was exploring the NHL EDGE stats, something caught my eye looking at Bennett’s shot volume. Bennett has 25 Shots on Goal this season and only one shot has come from the right hand side of the ice. Most of his shots have been clustered in the middle, with a half dozen or so from the left side. Granted, Bennett only scored 5 of his 25 goals last season from outside the slot or crease, but 3 of them came from the right side. What is unusual is that Bennett is typically balanced in his shot location from outside the slot and crease, but this season he has been cheating to the left, and is completely disregarding the right side.

Arguably more concerning than Bennett’s lack of production is Carter Verhaeghe’s performance. After back-to-back 30+ goal campaigns, Verhaeghe earned himself an 8 year extension at the start of the 2024-25 Season, which saw a sharp drop in production. His shooting percentage dropped over 5 points from 13.8 to 8.3, with him tallying 20 goals on the campaign. Verhaeghe had a strong postseason, playing more as a playmaker, with 16 assists in the playoffs last year compared to 7 goals, but his regular season start has been lackluster with 2 goals and 4 assists in 12 games. Additionally, his second goal was technically an own goal, which took a funky bounce off a defender to go in. His shooting percentage is 6.7 right now. . The Panthers need Verhaeghe to produce, especially without Barkov and Tkachuk in the lineup, and while he has assists in three straight, the Panthers need Verhaeghe to score if they are going to perform well.

However, the forwards have been let down by a lack of production from the Defense on the offensive side. On October 11th, 35 seconds into the second period, the Panthers went up 3-1 on the Ottawa Senators, after an Aaron Ekblad snapshot on the Powerplay beat Linus Ullmark. Ekblad’s goal was the Panthers first goal scored by a defenseman this season. As of today, it is also the last goal a Panthers defenseman has scored this season. Last year, the Panthers had 35 goals from their blueline, which is just under half a goal per game. Unless you are Cale Makar, defenders aren’t typically expected to score a lot. However, they are expected to chip in on occasion. The Panthers haven’t gotten any goal support from their blueline this season, which combined with the struggles of the forwards has resulted in an anemic offense.

THE LOSS OF DMITRY KULIKOV

Already coming into the season with three Long-Term injuries (Barkov, Tkachuk and Tomas Nosek), the Panthers suffered a fourth Long Term Injury during their second game of the season when Dmitry Kulikov left with a shoulder injury, which resulted in surgery. Kulikov is expected to miss 5 months. With the loss of Kulikov, the Panthers slotted Uvis Balinskis in with veteran newcomer Jeff Petry. The results were not pretty. The Pair were consistently among the worst performers on the ice when they played together, and after 9 games, Paul Maurice pulled the plug, taking Balinskis out, and replacing him with waiver claim Donovan Sebrango. The Sebrango-Petry pair looked much more comfortable together than Balinskis-Petry, and I expect Paul Maurice will give Sebrango more games to play.

Ultimately, Kulikov’s role as a lock-down bottom-pair defenseman is unique to the Panthers. The Panthers like to have a shutdown defender on each pair. Aaron Ekblad has been converted into a shutdown defender, and Niko Mikkola is a shutdown defender. Neither Balinskis or Petry are lockdown defenders. Sebrango seems much more comfortable in that Kulikov role than either Balinskis or Petry.

TARASOV

The Panthers entered this season with a new backup goalie in Danili Tarasov. The Russian hails from the same hometown as Sergei Bobrovsky, and grew up with Bobrovsky as his model. In three starts, Tarasov has yet to earn his maiden win with the Panthers, and while his numbers seem pedestrian with a 2.64 GAA and .886 Save Percentage, the team has provided him with no support. When he’s started, the Panthers have only scored 5 goals in 3 games. That is completely unfair to expect a goalie to have success with that little amount of offensive support. Tarasov has made several impressive saves, and has been outstanding against high-danger chances, ranking in the 84th Percentile in Save Percentage from High Danger chances with an .867 save percentage (league average is .812), which Bobrovsky (.798) has struggled with this season. However, Tarasov has struggled against mid-range shots, with only an .818 save percentage from mid range compared to the League Average of .881. Meanwhile, Bobrovsky has been one of the best in the league from mid-range, with a .909 Save Percentage.

Overall, Tarasov has been alright. He’s not at the level that 2023-24 Anthony Stolarz or pre-trade 2024-25 Spencer Knight, but he’s been better than Vitek Vanecek. Do I think he is the successor to Sergei Bobrovsky? No. I think his ceiling is as a backup, comparable to someone like a Casey DeSmith.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Overall, I wouldn’t panic about where the Panthers are right now. The Barkov void is impossible to replace, because there is no player in the league anywhere near his caliber that can do all the things he does. Anton Lundell has been excellent filling in for him, but Lundell’s game isn’t as a game-changer as Barkov can be. There have been many games over the years where the Panthers have won solely because Barkov put the team on his back, and you can’t replace that.

The question with Barkov is as his recovery progresses, will he play hockey this season? It is extremely unlikely that the Captain will play a regular-season game this year, but if the Panthers aren’t safely in the playoff picture down the stretch, but aren’t out of it, and he’s ahead of schedule, do you risk playing him? Let’s say he doesn’t play in the Regular Season, and is ready for the Playoffs? Do you throw him to the wolves? Common sense suggests that it would be a terrible idea, as Barkov would be working his way back into shape throughout the postseason, and could jeopardize his long term future. However, Gabriel Landeskog returned to the lineup in a playoff game after missing three straight regular seasons a few months ago, so who knows? Ultimately, a decision will have to be made by around the Trade Deadline. If Barkov isn’t good for the playoffs, they need another top-caliber center. With the new cap rules restricting players in the postseason, Barkov’s status may have to be determined earlier than the Panthers would like. However, if Erik Spoelstra is correct, Barkov may make that decision for the team.