Florida finished the regular season with a .565 points percentage (35-26-8) in Quenneville's first season as its coach, and lost to the New York Islanders in four games in the best-of-5 Stanley Cup Qualifiers. The Panthers haven't won a postseason series since 1996, when they reached the Stanley Cup Final.
Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky struggled in his first season with the Panthers after agreeing to a seven-year contract July 1, 2019, going 23-19-6 with a 3.23 goals-against average and a .900 save percentage in 50 games (49 starts). To help him, Florida agreed to terms with defenseman Radko Gudas on a three-year contract Oct. 9. Gudas scored 15 points (two goals, 13 assists) in 63 games with the Washington Capitals last season, and his 164 hits were 12th among NHL defensemen.
"I think our [defensemen] started getting a little bit edgier around the net later in the year," Quenneville said. "Gudas has got a lot of that presence. I think we did have a better understanding of that part of our needs as the season progressed. … I think that's an area where if we can be cleaner, neater, not easier to play against in front of our net, that can help our goalies and it can help keeping the puck out of our net as well."
Quenneville, who won the Cup three times as Chicago Blackhawks coach (2010, 2013, 2015), said he's confident the changes Florida made this offseason can help Panthers move up the standings and have postseason success.
"The type of players that we've brought in are working-type, they're the competitive type," Quenneville said. "I think that's what we want to have more of, and bring that type of mentality to every game. The emphasis is, 'Let's come ready to work for one another.'
"I think Bill came in with the attitude that he wants to change the culture. When we say that, I think we want to create a winning environment. I thought we made some progress last year, [but] we want competitiveness game to game, shift to shift. Expectations internally have got to be raised."