Only four players remain from the team that Bill Zito inherited in September 2020, following the dismissal of Dale Tallon: Aleksander Barkov, Aaron Ekblad, Eetu Luostarinen and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
The transformation of this club in just three years by this trained lawyer, former assistant to Jarmo Kekalainen in Columbus, remains fascinating.
Only three players from this Stanley Cup finalist roster have been drafted by the Panthers, Barkov, second overall pick in 2013, Ekblad, first overall pick in 2014, and Anton Lundell, 21, first-round pick, 12.e in total, in 2020.
Playoff hero Matthew Tkachuk cost two big plays, Jonathan Huberdeau and Mackenzie Weegar, but the others were acquired for a pittance and transformed from fringe players to stars for the most part.
Barkov’s left winger in the first line, Carter Verhaeghe, 27, has just scored 42 goals. He was without a contract in 2020, abandoned by the Tampa Bay Lightning, stuck by the salary cap. Tampa had no reason to retain a 25-year-old forward after a 13-point, 52-game season. Zito offered him a million per season for two years. He was offered a three-year contract extension for 12 million last summer. It remains a bargain.
Barkov’s other winger, Quebecer Anthony Duclair, had already played for five teams at age 24. Zito offered him 1.7 million for a year in December 2020. Duclair was injured this winter, but scored 31 goals the previous season. He now earns 3 million a year.
Duclair and Verhaeghe replaced two of the club’s top four scorers in 2019-20, Mike Hoffman and Evgeni Dadonov, whom Zito opted out of.
The current second line? Center Sam Bennett cost a late second-round pick, 61e altogether, and Emil Heineman. He just got 40 points in 63 games. He has 11 points in 15 games since the start of the playoffs and the Panthers’ opponents curse that plague.
Tkachuk, 109 points in the regular season, 21 points in 16 games since the start of the playoffs, including four game-winning goals, remains the locomotive of this line, but Nick Cousins, the former fourth-line winger for the Canadiens, complements Bennett and Tkachuk well. , despite a more modest offensive performance. Cousins, 29, hired on the free agent market, earns 1.1 million this year and will receive the same amount next year.
The construction of the defense is stunning. Brandon Montour, fifth in the NHL in scoring in the regular season with 73 points, after Erik Karlsson, Quinn Hughes, Josh Morrissey and Dougie Hamilton, was obtained from the Sabers for a third-round pick.
Gustav Forsling, 41 points in the regular season, 26:44 average usage per game since the start of the playoffs, third in the NHL behind Miro Heiskanen and Montour among players who have played at least seven games, was claimed on waivers for the Carolina Hurricanes in January 2021.
The terrifying Radko Gudas was hired for 2.5 million per season just weeks after Zito’s arrival. Marc Staal, the fourth defender in the hierarchy, receives $750,000. Josh Mahura was claimed on waivers too.
One wonders how fallen Dale Tallon reacts today. He was never able to complete his reconstruction in ten years with the Panthers (it takes a one-year break in 2016-2017) despite four choices in the top three between 2010 and 2013.
He left behind Barkov, Ekblad and Luostarinen (obtained with Erik Haula for Vincent Trocheck), without forgetting of course goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky, 34, whose 70 million contract for seven years was cursed not so long ago. after several bad seasons.
But the Panthers reached the first round just twice under Tallon, never advancing, and they wouldn’t be in the Finals today without Zito’s particular recipe and, or, his flair and that of his bodyguard.
The margin between success and failure remains very thin, however. If the poor Chicago Blackhawks don’t beat the Pittsburgh Penguins at Mellon Arena in the penultimate game of the regular season, or if Michael Pezzetta doesn’t score in the shootout against the Sabers in late March, the Panthers from Florida are excluded from the playoffs and Zito does not pass for a genius.
Pezzetta had a good time after his goal, celebrating in the style of tough-guy Tiger Williams back in the day, but his goal may have cost the Canadian a top-13 pick. this place in the final, the first-round pick obtained from the Panthers for Ben Chiarot has just slipped to 31e rank. We’re kidding a bit here. But still…
A record for Logan Mailloux
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Logan Mailloux
The Canadiens’ first-round choice in 2021, Logan Mailloux, will not participate in the Memorial Cup, following the elimination of the London Knights in the Ontario final against Peterborough and Owen Beck, another CH hope (however suspended in end of series), but he just broke a team record for most playoff points, 24 points in 21 games.
Olli Maatta held the record with 23 points in 19 games, ahead of John Carlson, 22 points in 14 games, and Danny Svyret, 20 points in 18 games. Maatta, established in the NHL since 2013 but in a defensive role, was 18 when he reached that mark, however, and Carlson had just turned 19. Mailloux turned 20 in April.
Mailloux was the key player in powerplay in the playoffs for the Knights, third in this chapter in Ontario with a success rate of 25.6%. The young man also amassed 13 of his 24 points in such a situation.
This 6-foot-3, 208-pound right-handed defenseman will likely play for the Laval Rocket next year. He will have to work to refine his defensive game, among other things his lateral mobility and his explosiveness in the back skate, his positioning and his decision-making with or without the puck.
But his deficiencies in certain aspects of his game can be explained by the few games played between 2020 and 2022 due to his suspension and the pandemic. He will have good teachers in Laval.