The Panthers won’t be as good as expected

After a surprisingly down season, many are expecting the Florida Panthers to bounce back and return to Stanley Cup contention.

But will they?

After winning back-to-back Stanley Cups, the Panthers took a huge step back in 2025-26. There were a lot of factors that led to the team’s lackluster performance. Captain Aleksander Barkov was out for the entire year, and players such as Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart and Brad Marchand also were out of action for long stretches, with Marchand going to miss the early portion of this season.

Florida does come back healthier, with Brady Tkachuk joining his brother. However, there’s skepticism from some about this team, especially between the pipes.

On Tuesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discuss whether the Panthers are actually going to be as good as some are proposing.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I don’t think the Florida Panthers are gonna be as good as everyone thinks they’re going to be. I’m looking at the predictions from all the experts, and 90% of them are taking the Florida Panthers to win this division…They only had 84 points last year. Granted, Barkov wasn’t there. Tkachuk missed a chunk of the season. They’re going to get healthier. My counterpoint to that would be, ‘Hey, they’re already missing Brad Marchand for a chunk of time.’ Health is never guaranteed for any team.

I obviously like the Brady Tkachuk add. I love that they’re going to play this Smash Mouth brand of hockey and all of this stuff, but I also keep going back to Jacob Markstrom and the duo they have between the pipes…I don’t know if that’s a duo that is the kind of goaltending that a team that’s capable of winning the Presidents’ Trophy should have. I’m not a big Jacob Markstrom fan. I think he’s well past his prime. He’s in his late 30s. Last year, they didn’t get great goaltending from Bobrovsky, either, and that was part of the problem….They’ll make the playoffs. I’m pretty confident in that. But I think it’s more likely they’re a Wild Card team than they win the division.

Carter Hutton: Yeah, I think there’s a lot of pressure on them, right? There’s only so many seats at the table when you talk about Brady Tkachuck and the role that he’s used to playing in Ottawa. Now, are you more of an outside guy looking in? … I think the goalie conversation is one we’re going to be circling back to a party. Can Markstrom be the guy? Can Schmid carry the weight?

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…