Florida Panthers Heading To The Olympics

The Panthers are going to have no shortage of representation at the Olympics next month. With nine players and possibly one prospect named to national team rosters, they’ll be joined by coaching and front office staff as well in Italy. It’s an exciting time for the Cats’ players to be playing on such a large stage. However, it does come with a hint of sadness, as Aleksander Barkov was set to be the captain of Team Finland but is missing the Olympics due to a knee injury. A welcome surprise was Seth Jones being named to Team USA. NHL hockey may be on pause for most of February, but there will still be plenty of games to watch the Florida Panthers play in as they represent their home countries. 

Team USA:

With the final roster announced this past Friday, it was no surprise to see Matthew Tkachuk’s name on there since he was one of the first six players named to the team. He has yet to play a game this season, but the update given on Monday was that he’ll be joining the team on their six-game road trip. He still has at least another practice in the non-contact jersey, and then he’ll need a few practices as a full participant. But HC Paul Maurice said that Tkachuk could be back in the lineup within the first four games. The Panthers don’t want to rush him back after he suffered such a severe injury at the Four Nations tournament almost a year ago. Even injured, he was a point-per-game player during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but his best attribute wasn’t impacted by his injury. He excels at getting other players off their games and is hardwired into the emotional part of the game. Tkachuk is a leader willing to drag his teammates into the mud with him if it means giving the team an edge over their opponents. There’s still just over a month to go before the Olympics start, so we’ll see how he looks once he gets back onto the ice. 

An unexpected but welcome surprise was Seth Jones making Team USA. At the Winter Classic, he, along with Tkachuk, was honored during the pre-game introductions that they’d be representing Team USA. Unfortunately, not long into the gam,e he took a puck to the clavicle area and left the match. The most recent update is that he’s week-to-week, but the Cats are hoping to get him back before the Olympic break. Should he return before the Olympics, then there’s nothing to worry about, but if he’s not back by then, his spot could be in jeopardy. That’d be terribly unfortunate because he’s had an amazing season for Florida and has been one of their best, if not their best, defensemen on the ice on any given night. There was plenty of noise around his selection, with Adam Fox not named to the roster. Personally, I think some of the noise about him comes from people who haven’t watched much Florida Panthers hockey this season and still see him as the same defenseman who was playing in Chicago. We’re not privy to the decision-making process on why some players were selected over others, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Bill Zito, serving as a Team USA AGM, went to bat for Seth if there were others on the fence about him. For all we know, the situation and final decision-making didn’t come down to Jones or Fox, but Fox and another defenseman. It’s simply speculation that the front office was picking between these two. Hopefully, Jones’ injury won’t hold him out of playing in Italy and representing Team USA. 

Team Canada:

If Seth Jones had a lot of noise around his selection, then Team Canada had even more noise over who they didn’t select. It was a rather big shock that Canada has opted to leave off Sam Bennett, who’s coming off of a Conn Smythe playoff campaign and was instrumental in Canada’s Four Nations win. Instead, the two Cats that’ll be on the roster are Sam Reinhart and Brad Marchand. Neither is a surprise. Reinhart was one of the first six players locked in, and Marchand is having one of the best seasons of his career while leading the Panthers in points. Reinhart has turned into a quiet star of the NHL. He scored nearly 60 goals in the regular season two years ago and was a Selke Nominee last season. He’s deadly on the power play, a playmaker, and one of the best defensive forwards in the league. He’s second on the team in points and proving this season that he’s not a Barkov merchant. Sam leads the forwards in TOI with just over 21 minutes a night; no other forward is playing at least 20 minutes. He’s shooting at nearly the same percentage as his 57-goal regular season. This year he’s at 21.3%, that year he was at 24.5%. He was trusted in a top-6 role on Team Canada at the Four Nations and hit his stride when they stopped trying to play him on the left. He’s a locked-in right wing for the Panthers for a reason, although he can also play center when necessary. 

Brad Marchand, the man who needs no introduction, has found new life with the Florida Panthers. Through 40 games, he’s had 23Gs & 23As, and is on pace to have his best regular season since the 2018-2019 season, where he hit 100 points. It’s very possible that he sets a new career-high in goals, and he’s above a point-per-game pace right now. With the Cats lacking so much of their offense to injury, Brad has been one player who has stepped up massively to fill the gap. While he was on Florida’s ‘third line’ last season, let’s be honest, it wasn’t really a third line. The Luostarinen-Lundell-Marchand line dominated the playoffs, and no team had an answer for them. Brad did a great job of being able to elevate the games of Eetu and Anton. Marchand played a depth role for Team Canada at the Four Nations, and there’s no way to quantify his locker room impact because he’s like Tkachuk, he reads the emotional side of the game in a way that many can’t. Where he falls in the Canada lineup is yet to be seen, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them bring him up to the third line after they had him playing on the fourth line at Four Nations. 

Team Finland:

A year that’s demanded he prove himself capable of a top-line center role, Anton Lundell has answered the call. He’s faced the toughest match-ups night in and night out, and he’s on track to have a career year. Last season in 79 games, he put up 45 points (17G, 28A), this season in just 41 games, he’s posted 31 points (13G, 18A). He’s shooting at nearly the same percentage he did as a rookie when he put up 18 goals in 65 games; he shot 14.4% that season, and he’s at 14.3% this season. Lundell played a depth role for Team Finland at Four Nations, but with his play this season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him moved into a Top-6 role. Often referred to by fans as Baby Barkov, I prefer to call him Barkov 2.0 because there are parts of his game that differ from Barkov’s, and that’s not a bad thing. He’s certainly got a bit more bite to him than Barkov does, as Lundell is more likely to get into scraps or instigate them. He has great vision and has proved he can be a consistent playmaker when given a winger who’s more offensively minded. Obviously, he’s defensively excellent and has excelled in his penalty killing skills over the last calendar year. While a team would never want to be without Barkov, having Lundell makes his absence sting just a little bit less. 

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Arguably the most underrated player on the Florida Panthers, Eetu Luostarinen may finally be getting the appreciation he deserves from Cats fans. When he missed 8 games due to a grill-related barbecue accident, they were some of the worst games Florida’s played all year. He’s not a big points guy, but that’s not what he mainly needs to contribute to the lineup. Luostarinen is an exceptionally skilled defensive forward, almost like a silent assassin. You don’t always notice him when he’s on the ice, but you certainly notice when he’s not in the lineup. It’s worth noting that the Panthers have never lost a playoff series when he’s been able to play. The only one they’ve lost in the last three years was against the Vegas Golden Knights, and he was out with a broken leg. He’s always paired with Anton Lundell as his left winger unless injury necessitates them being broken up. Rarely does Paul Maurice resort to that, instead he prefers to put Sam Reinhart on their line and will shuffle the rest of the lineup accordingly. Eetu is an elite penalty killer and stepped into a larger role on that part of special teams last season. He could set a new career high in points this season, but if he doesn’t, he is on track to post more points than last year. I’d be surprised if Team Finland broke up the Luostarinen-Lundell pair, especially since they kept them together at the Four Nations Tournament. 

Half of Florida’s tallest defensive pairing, Mikkola, showed he was capable of playing a large role for Team Finland defensively. When their Four Nations’ defense was riddled with injury, Mikkola was part of their top pairing and handled the added pressure well. He plays with Seth Jones for the Panthers, and they’ve been Florida’s best defensive pairing this season. He’s not the most offensive defenseman, but that’s not his game. He’s a great penalty killer and very strong at 5v5. His long reach helps him cover a lot of ice, and he’s a great puck mover. Mikkola was great during the Cats’ most recent Cup run, and his best series was against the Carolina Hurricanes, where he scored 2 of his 3 playoff goals in a single game. Florida recently signed him to an eight-year extension, so he’ll be staying with the Cats for the foreseeable future.

Team Sweden:

Gustav Forsling has been a defensive force for the Florida Panthers. HC Paul Maurice has said that he’s the best in the world at his style of play. Forsling excels at making plays with his stick. One of the best he made last season was during overtime of Game 2 of the Cup Final, where he slid down on the ice and used his stick to knock the puck off the Edmonton player’s stick. The play arguably saved a goal and allowed the Panthers to eventually win the match in double overtime. He’s tasked with the hardest matchups against the best players in the league every night and is one of the few players who can skate with McDavid to a close degree. He’s an underappreciated defenseman because he doesn’t put up massive point numbers. Panther fans understand how good he is, so he gets plenty of love from the home crowds. Gustav played on Team Sweden’s second pair at the Four Nations and did well in his role. He’s an exceptional penalty killer and typically isn’t needed to run a power play unit. He can, but it’s not the biggest strength of his game. If you need someone to shut down a top player, he’s the man for the job. 

Team Latvia:

Uvis Balinskis isn’t always in the Florida lineup, but he’s a great depth piece to their defensive core. He actually played a good part of the season last year with Nate Schmidt, and the two made a solid third pair as the Cats got farther into the year. When Ekblad was unavailable for playoff games, Uvis came in and didn’t miss a beat or look out of place. The 29-year-old defender played 76 games last season and 32 games this season. With Seth Jones out as week-to-week, he’s getting the opportunity to play up on the second pair with Niko Mikkola. Ekblad was quick to praise him after the game against the Avalanche and said that he handled the bigger role & increased minutes extremely well. Balinskis was one of the first six players named to Team Latvia, so he’s known he was heading to Italy since last year. There’s even a heartwarming video of Uvis with HC Paul Maurice after the Stanley Cup Win, where Paul congratulates him on making the Latvia Olympic Team and winning the Cup.

There’s been a report by Alex Baumgartner on X that, per his sources, Panthers prospect Sandis Vilmanis has made the Latvian Olympic Team; there’s been no official release of the full team roster yet. He’s currently playing on the Charlotte Checkers, and in 31 games, he has 8 goals with 11 assists for 19 points. He has previous international experience and has played on Latvia’s U16, U18, and U20 teams. We’ll see if the reporting is correct when the full roster gets released. 

Staff:

The Panthers have quite a bit of staff heading to Italy, just like they did for the Four Nations Tournament last year. GM Bill Zito will be with Team USA as an Assistant GM, and Equipment Manager Teddy Richards will join him as the USA’s Equipment Manager. Both Zito and Richards were part of Team USA for the Four Nations. Assistant Coach Tuomo Ruutu will be behind Team Finland’s bench as an assistant coach. Finally, Video Coach Myles Fee will be with Team Sweden as their video coach. Both Ruutu and Fee had these roles at the Four Nations Tournament. 

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