Lesson of Florida Panthers’ Stanley Cup triumph? Pro scouting matters

Jun 25, 2024

Lesson of Florida Panthers’ Stanley Cup triumph? Pro scouting matters

Credit: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

Since the NHL implemented a salary cap after the canceled 2004-05 season, roster building has changed. Gone are the days when the 2002 Red Wings and 1994 Rangers could stack their rosters with Hall-of-Famers at exorbitant costs. Nowadays, building a winner is about value as much as talent. How many great players can you assemble without paying them like great players?

Unless a team resorts to shameless tactics like scratching an “injured” superstar and his cap hit for the entire regular season, that typically means drafting well. Between entry-level contracts and subsequent ‘bridge deals,’ a drafted player can go as many as six seasons without making his market value.

So what does a team do if it’s drafted one everyday player since 2014? Overspend on free agents to round out the lineup? Gut the prospect pipeline in risky trades? If the team’s the Florida Panthers, it assembles the best roster in the league anyway.

The Panthers have lost exactly one series, last year’s Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights, in the past two years. When the Cats held off a furious Edmonton Oilers series comeback to win Game 7 and their first Stanley Cup on Monday, their coronation as the best team in the NHL became official.

They have dispatched recent champions, Presidents’ Trophy winners, and Eastern Conference institutions with dizzying skill and devastating physicality. Florida can afford all this success not because of the draft, but because of the oft-overlooked art of pro scouting.

Anyone could see that Kirill Kaprizov or Miro Heiskanen are franchise building blocks, but nabbing them from their current teams isn’t a realistic strategy. The trick Panthers GM Bill Zito has mastered is identifying contributors who don’t have enough of a market to cost him. Contributors like Sam Bennett.

Bennett’s prickly style of play as coach Paul Maurice’s second-line center has become emblematic of Panther hockey, but he wasn’t always a nailed-on top-six forward. The former fourth-overall selection could never shake his “bust” label with the Calgary Flames.

Bennett had his moments in Alberta, but after cutting his minutes in each of his first five pro seasons, Calgary pulled the plug on the power forward at the 2021 trade deadline. Zito snapped him up for a second-round prospect and a second-round pick. “Obviously my career hasn’t gone the way I expected,” Bennett said after the trade. “I think I have a lot more to prove and I have a lot more to give.” He was right.

Bennett has been a staple in Florida, averaging more than 55 points and 180 hits per 82 games in the regular season under three different head coaches. Those numbers tell the story of a guy who has locked down a complementary role in a stacked lineup, but in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, he’s so much more.

Bennett and old Calgary buddy Matthew Tkachuk check, bully, and otherwise harass opposition players into mistakes. In Game 1 against the Oilers, Bennett notched an absurd 11 hits, and that’s not counting a huge collision with Edmonton captain (and former OHL linemate) Connor McDavid. When he wasn’t busy running amok, Bennett scored five goals and 10 points in 13 games during the final two playoff rounds. Not bad for a bust.

The same day Zito took a chance on Bennett’s pedigree, he acquired another distressed asset on the cheap, right-shot defenseman Brandon Montour. Montour’s accurate wrister and competitive fire convinced the Buffalo Sabres to trade a first-round pick for his services two years earlier, but the experiment was a flop.

Zito acquired Montour to cover for an injured Aaron Ekblad after the former failed to develop chemistry with Buffalo franchise defenseman Rasmus Dahlin for parts of three seasons. This time, it only cost a third-rounder. Online, the Sabres faithful rejoiced. “Nice job getting some value out of … a pretty bad asset,” one commenter opined.

These days, Montour is irreplaceable on Florida’s second pair. After a 73-point regular season in 2022-23 and five goals during the Cats’ historic upset of the 135-point Boston Bruins, he returned from shoulder surgery to lead the Panthers in average ice time in 2023-24.

Montour’s bargain $3.5 million AAV will likely double or more in the offseason, whether in Sunrise or elsewhere. His combination of offensive skill and physicality make him one of the most desirable players on the market, and anyone savaging him on the internet now probably cheers for one of the teams he’s beaten over the last two posteasons.

As good as Montour has been, the top dog on Florida’s blueline is Gustav Forsling. Bennett and Montour might have been bargains, but Forsling was genuinely free: the Carolina Hurricanes attempted to pass the lefty through waivers to the AHL in January of 2021 when Florida snapped him up.

The NHL’s leader in regular-season rating (56), Forsling controlled more than 55% of scoring chances and 53% of expected goals during his 5-on-5 playoff minutes. Maybe Maurice’s claim he’s the best shutdown defenseman in the world isn’t so crazy, after all. What’s crazy is that Forsling is only now becoming a household name.

Forsling did not set career highs in average ice time, scoring, or per-game scoring in 2023-24. It was his second year with at least a +41 rating and his third with 34 or more even-strength points. Since he’s linked up with Ekblad and the Panthers, the newly extended 28-year-old’s +133 rating is second to only Devon Toews (148) in the entire NHL. Dominance from the Swede isn’t new, but probable Norris consideration is. Another under-the-radar addition, another home run by Zito and Co.

Three months earlier, the agent-turned-executive signed a player with even fewer NHL games under his belt than Forsling, winger Carter Verhaeghe. Verhaeghe parachuted between the AHL and ECHL for five seasons before debuting in a depth role (9 G, 9:22 ATOI in 52 GP) for the rival Tampa Bay Lightning, who let him walk in free agency. For a 25-year-old with so little experience in the show, even the 2-year, $4-million dollar pact Zito offered Verhaeghe was a risk.

It has been one of the most successful gambles in recent NHL history. Verhaeghe has been an ever-present in the Panthers’ top six since he joined the team, with 118 goals and 236 points in 278 games, good for a 35-goal, 69.6-point 82-game pace. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but he’s even better in the playoffs.

Verhaeghe’s five OT playoff goals trail only icons Joe Sakic and Maurice Richard. The list of players with more than his 26 postseason goals since 2021? Draisaitl, Hyman, MacKinnon, McDavid. That’s it. If Verhaeghe isn’t the best player in the from Florida’s bargain basement crew, he’s certainly the clutchest. That reputation became immortal during Game 7 against the Oilers, where he shook off a brutal series (-7 from Games 1-6) to tip the opening tally past Stuart Skinner before assisting on Sam Reinhart’s series winner.

The Panthers haven’t done all their shopping at the junkyard. Captain Aleksander Barkov and franchise pillar Ekblad were top-two selections in consecutive drafts. 57-goal scorer Reinhart cost Zito a first-rounder and goaltending prodigy Devon Levi. Superstar winger Tkachuk commanded an even heftier price. Florida sent Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar to Calgary with another first-rounder for his services. Even before Zito took over, the Panthers gave future Hall-of-Fame goalie Sergei Bobrovsky the second-richest contract ever signed by a netminder.

That’s a heck of a core, but no group of five is a golden ticket to a championship. Subtract Bennett, Montour, Forsling, and Verhaeghe, and you have another top-heavy faux superteam. That doesn’t even work in basketball anymore. Just ask the Dallas Mavericks.

In a league of copycats that learned the value of two-way forwards from the Lightning and of blueline depth from the Golden Knights, there’s a new lesson this year: second chances for misfit toys like Sam Bennett, Brandon Montour, Gustav Forsling, and Carter Verhaeghe don’t just change careers. They can win championships.

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