#Florida Panthers

#Florida Panthers

The start of the National Hockey League is only hours away, as we look forward to yet another thrilling season of action and exciting results over the course of the year. The first game of this season in the NHL at 5pm sees the Chicago Blackhawks take on the current back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions, the Florida Panthers, in what will be a tough game to start.

With its final choice of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft in Nashville, the Florida Panthers selected Belarusian forward Stepan Zvyagin in the seventh round (198th overall), a pick that originally belonged to the Arizona Coyotes, from the KHL's Dinamo Minsk organization. In 15 KHL games with Dinamo during his draft season, Zvyagin netted one goal. He was much more productive against his peer group, racking up 14 goals and 33 points in 37 games with Babruysk Dinamo-Shinnik of the MHL.

Jeff Petry is 37 and needs to be insulated, but there are reasons to believe he could have a renaissance year and significantly outperform his league-minimum base salary. First, there is the expected change in workload. Petry averaged nearly 19 minutes per game (fourth among Red Wings defensemen) and was saddled with a subpar partner in Ben Chiarot. In other words, he was thrust into a challenging role that he was no longer equipped to handle.