The Panthers won’t be as good as expected

Sep 29, 2026, 7:25 PM ET|Comments (0)

from Daily Faceoff (Frank Seravalli),

After a surprisingly down season, many are expecting the Florida Panthers to bounce back and return to Stanley Cup contention.

After winning back-to-back Stanley Cups, the Panthers took a huge step back in 2025-26. There were a lot of factors that led to the team’s lackluster performance. Captain Aleksander Barkov was out for the entire year, and players such as Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart and Brad Marchand also were out of action for long stretches, with Marchand going to miss the early portion of this season.

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