Panthers' Stanley Cup playoffs run puts Ekblad, Montour on bench at start of NHL season

SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers open the 2023-24 NHL season Thursday and there are quite a few reinforcements to bolster the squad that took them to the Stanley Cup Final. And they needed to do that because of the repercussions that come with making a deep run in the playoffs.

Star defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour are expected to miss the start of the season with injuries they played through during last year’s playoffs. In response, the Panthers brought in four new defensemen via free agency.

With forwards Eric Staal and Colin White leaving in free agency and Anthony Duclair sent to the San Jose Sharks in a trade, Florida bolstered its forward core to make it arguably deeper than last year’s Eastern Conference champions.

The Panthers are looking to make the postseason for the fifth year in a row for the first time in franchise history. And with the core general manager Bill Zito built around stars Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, the standard has been set.

Florida sees itself as a perennial contender.

“There is no next step,” Zito said. “We need to play hockey and do everything at the level that the players executed in their game through the second half of the season and the playoffs. That needs to become a habit, a way of life, not something you aspire to or elevate your game to. That’s how you do it every day.”

Here are some of the key pieces the Panthers brought in to make a run at a second-straight Stanley Cup Final berth.

Evan Rodrigues broke out with Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh

Florida needed a scoring winger to replace Duclair when they traded him to San Jose and Rodrigues quickly became the answer. The Panthers signed the speedy sniper to a four-year contract with a $3 million annual cap hit to fill this very role.

Rodrigues broke out with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2021-22, scoring 19 goals in 82 games while playing on a line with Sidney Crosby. He signed with the Colorado Avalanche and built on that success alongside Nathan MacKinnon, scoring 16 goals in 69 games.

The 5-foot-11 forward has proven to be the perfect winger to play alongside a pass-first superstar center like Barkov. He uses his speed to get himself open and he is able to finish the chances he creates.

Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson can run power play

With Ekblad and Montour out, the Panthers needed to find a defenseman who can run their power play and Ekman-Larsson fits the bill.

The 32-year-old was one of the NHL’s best offensive defensemen at his peak, notching 135 goals and 439 points in 902 career games. But his production plummeted after he was traded from the Arizona Coyotes to Vancouver Canucks.

Vancouver bought out Ekman-Larsson’s contract after an ankle injury ended his season in February and he is set to be one of Florida’s latest reclamation projects. After impressing the coaching staff in training camp and the preseason, he is set to quarterback the power play for the first two months of the season.

First-round pick Mackie Samoskevich excelled in preseason

Perhaps one of the biggest additions to the Panthers roster came from within. Samoskevich, a 2021 first-round draft pick, turned heads in camp and earned himself a spot in the opening-night lineup.

The 20-year-old out of the University of Michigan shined in the preseason, scoring six points (three goals, three assists) in six games. His speed, hands and mature decision-making impressed Florida’s coaching staff enough to make him a rare rookie on a Panthers team that has traded all of its first-round picks from 2022 to 2025.

An injury to Sam Bennett opened up a spot for him in the top three forward lines, but if he continues the upward trajectory he is on, he can stick around long-term. He showed how dangerous of an offensive weapon he can be when he scored 20 goals and 43 points in 39 games as a sophomore at Michigan.

Niko Mikkola provides physicality, defensive flexibility

The Panthers needed a new physical presence on the blueline with the departure of Radko Gudas. Hello Mikkola.

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Standing 6-5, 206 pounds, Mikkola provides physicality and defensive flexibility with his long reach. He is fast for his size, making him a matchup nightmare for most NHL forwards.

Mikkola had limited opportunities playing on a deep St. Louis Blues defense for the first three years of his career but he played well enough in 2022-23 to get picked up by the New York Rangers at the trade deadline. And after playing well down the stretch for New York, the 27-year-old has a chance to truly break out in South Florida.

Other Notable Additions: D Dmitry Kulikov, D Mike Reilly, F Kevin Stenlund, F Steven Lorentz, D Uvis Balinskis, F Justin Sourdif, G Anthony Stolarz

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida Panthers seeking second-straight Stanley Cup Final berth