Slowly but surely, the new NHL season is approaching. When the Florida Panthers take the ice for Opening Night on Oct. 8, they will begin their Stanley Cup title defense. Florida will be among several teams viewed as contenders to compete for a championship. View the original article to see embedded media. A big reason why the Panthers have become one of the top units in the league is due to the roster that General Manager Bill Zito has built over the past several years. Lately, NHL Network has been ranking players by their position.
The network’s experts ranked Panthers netminder Sergei Bobrovsky as the league’s seventh-best goaltender.
This week, they’re looking at the top 20 NHL wingers, and two Panthers made the list. Actually, the two Cats cracked the top ten.
Sam Reinhart, who scored 57 goals last season, was named the league’s eighth best winger.
He produced impressive offensive stats for Florida, which undoubtedly contributed to his inclusion on the list.
According to NHL.com, Reinhart had a career year with NHL highs in goals (57), points (94), power-play goals (27, most in the NHL), power-play points (34), plus-minus (plus-29), short-handed goals (five, second-most in the NHL), and game-winning goals (11, second-most
NHL) and total shots on goal (233).” What was not acknowledged was Reinhart’s two-way ability, which has quietly elevated him to the ranks of the league’s most valuable players.
To be fair, Reinhart is labelled as a winger, but he also took 530 faceoffs for the Panthers last season, which was a career high.
He plays more winger than centre, but his faceoff talents on right-side draws are extremely valuable to Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice.
The Panthers’ second player to make the cut is near the top of the NHL Network’s Top 20 wingers list.
To no surprise, it’s Matthew Tkachuk.
Tkachuk has 66 goals and 197 points in two seasons with Florida, propelling the team to consecutive Stanley Cup Finals appearances.
He’s emerged as the team’s emotional leader and is an important part of Florida’s championship core.
Tkachuk and Reinhart are both contracted until the end of the decade (Tkachuk till 2030 and Reinhart until 2032), and at very cheap AAVs (average yearly values) given how talented they are (Tkachuk’s AAV is $9.5M and Reinhart’s is $8.625). You can see the NHL Network’s story on Tkachuk below.
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