2. How will the defense handle the loss? Brandon Montour And Olivier Ekman-Larsson?
Montour, who signed a seven-year contract with the Seattle Kraken, led the Panthers with an average of 23:27 of ice time per game, and was second among their defensemen with 33 points (eight goals, 25 assists) in 66 games (Gustave Forsling39 points) and led his defensemen with 17 power-play points (one goal, 16 assists). Ekman-Larsson, who signed a four-year contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, had 32 points (nine goals, 23 assists) in 80 games, including 11 (one goal, 10 assists) on the power play.
To fill the void, Florida signed Nate Schmidt And Adam Boqvist The Panthers signed each to one-year contracts, hoping they can bounce back after their contracts were bought out by the Winnipeg Jets and Columbus Blue Jackets, respectively. But the Panthers expect it to be a team effort involving Schmidt, Boqvist and their returning defensemen.
“One way to describe it would be defense by committee,” Zito said. “We were in a similar situation last year, with Ekman-Larsson, Niko Mikkola, Radko Gudas who went to Anaheim and he said, ‘Okay, we can build a scenario to make it happen the way we think it’s going to happen, but we know we have good players. Let’s get everybody together and do the work and see where it goes.’”
