Will 2025-26 be a step-back year for the banged-up Panthers?

The Florida Panthers enter the regular season with a few more question marks than expected. While they are back-to-back Stanley Cup champions, they begin the year with Matthew Tkachuk hurt for at least a couple months, and Aleksander Barkov out for the entire season. Between the fatigue of three straight Cup Final appearances and overcoming these injuries, is a step back in the cards for the Panthers?

Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton talked about the Panthers and how they may not go the distance again this season on Daily Faceoff Live.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Obviously, this is a team coming into the year, back to back Stanley Cup champions. If anyone’s earned the right for a down year, it’s the Florida Panthers. And not to say that they’re destined for one, but when you look at the injuries, Tkachuk out until the middle of the season, and then you lose Barkov for the whole year.

Do you think this is going to be a step back year for the Panthers, or do you think they have enough depth?

Carter Hutton: It feels inevitable, right? I think with the Barkov deal, it would have been tough enough to begin this year coming back. We look at Tampa Bay, we have that perfect scale of what we see Tampa Bay do not that long ago and getting back there and just being a little more fatigued come playoff time.

And I hear a lot of positive out of Florida. I think the way that they approach the game and the way they approach training camp, the season, peaking at the right time, making sure they’re ready.

But this is Alexander Barkov. This isn’t a guy that you can replace. He might be one of the best players, arguably in the league, when it comes to playoff hockey, defending on all sides of the puck.

So I think with this hole, it’s going to be the biggest question mark. Because the Florida Panthers have depth. They have goaltending. They have defense. They have all the right pieces, all the returning guys. And you can talk about the two-year Stanley Cup hangover, and where they’re going to be. But without Alexander Barkov is a big, big question mark for me.

And again, it’s going to be tough to judge this team on the regular season, because I think when you looked at them last year, they tried to peak at the right times. But this is going to be a big, big mountain for them to climb without Alexander Barkov. So I put them a little farther down the list, and I don’t look for them to be back in the dance this year.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Yeah, I think going all the way is tough. I mean, they’ve been to three straight Stanley Cup Finals, and it’s part of the reason why last year, I was dead wrong, I know this, but I did pick them to lose in the first round because I was like, “eventually, you just run out of gas”. And again, with the injuries piling up, maybe this is the year where they do.

You can watch the full episode here…