Has Father Time caught up to Sergei Bobrovsky?

The Florida Panthers had gotten used to playing big-time hockey this time of year. After all, they have reached the last three Stanley Cup Finals, winning each of the last two. This season, however, due to the year-long injury to captain Aleksander Barkov along with some other factors, the Panthers missed the playoffs altogether, finishing second to last in the Atlantic Division with 84 points.

One of the reasons the Panthers didn’t resemble their recent selves this season was the disappointing performance of Sergei Bobrovsky. In 51 starts, the 37-year-old goaltender put up a career-worst .877 save percentage along with a 3.07 goals-against average. Bobrovsky is set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason, so Florida has to decide if they should bring back the goalie that helped them win two Stanley Cups, or let him walk under the belief that he’s no longer the player he used to be.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed whether Florida should prioritize re-signing their veteran netminder.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Do you look at Bobrovsky’s step back this year as a 37-year-old? An .877 SV% is pretty ugly by Bob’s standards, by anyone’s standards, it’s 20 points below league average. Do you look at that and go, Bob’s struggles are a product of a team in front of him that wasn’t healthy and wasn’t as good as in years past, or do you sit there and go, whoa, that’s a guy in his late-thirties. Is this step back maybe Father Time taking a swing at Bob?

Carter Hutton: I think time is undefeated. I think that would be the concern here on a guy who’s consistently been a workhorse, a guy who prides himself on conditioning off the rink and the way he takes care of himself. That’s why he’s been so successful for this long, but you get to a point where it’s really hard to sustain that. I think a great example of that would be, obviously a different category of goalie, but a guy who struggled with injury and staying healthy, Freddie Andersen. This year he doesn’t play as many games, and look what he’s been capable of doing in the playoff run.

I always thought the Boston Bruins did a really good job with Tuukka Rask of this later in his career. They would always go find a backup, whether it was (Jaroslav) Halak or it was (Anton) Khudobin. They would find these guys to come play 40 games, give him his rest, and then when it matters most get him ready to play. I think that would be my priority if they find a term and a number where he wants to stay, is getting him out of the 50s, getting him down to the 40s and having him peak at the right time.

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Tuesday’s episode here…