3 questions facing Florida Panthers

NHL.com is providing in-depth analysis for each of its 32 teams from Aug. 1-Sept. 1. Today, three important questions facing the Florida Panthers.

1. What will Matthew and Brady Tkachuk be like as teammates?

The Panthers' trade to acquire forward Matthew from the Calgary Flames in 2022 helped transform them into one of the top teams in the NHL, leading to three consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances (2023, 2024, 2025) and back-to-back championships (2024, 2025). The 28-year-old will be teammates with younger brother Brady for the first time in the NHL this season after Florida acquired the 26-year-old forward in a trade with the Ottawa Senators on June 21.

Brady (18) and Matthew (eight) each made NHL Network's list of the top 20 wings in the League right now. Could they reach another level as teammates? Panthers general manager Bill Zito got a glimpse of what it could be like as an assistant GM for Team USA when Matthew and Brady played together at the 4 Nations Face-off in 2025 and the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, where they helped the U.S. win gold.

"I think when you have teams and you have two people on the team that love each other unconditionally, it makes the team better. I believe that," Zito said. "That could apply to them. That could apply to whoever. But having seen them together in tournaments twice, they have an impact."

2. Can Jacob Markstrom and Akira Schmid fill Sergei Bobrovsky's shoes?

Bobrovsky was a big part of the back-to-back Cup wins for the Panthers, but they decided to move on from him after last season, and he signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs. To replace him, Florida acquired Markstrom, 36, in a trade with the New Jersey Devils and Schmid, 26, in a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights. 

Markstrom, who was selected by the Panthers in the second round (No. 31) of the 2008 NHL Draft and played his first four seasons in the League with them, will likely be the No. 1 goalie and look to rebound from a disappointing 2025-26 season with the Devils in which he was 23-19-1 with a 3.07 goals-against average, .883 save percentage and one shutout in 44 games (43 starts). Schmid was 16-10-6 with a 2.59 GAA, .893 save percentage and two shutouts in 34 games (29 starts) with the Golden Knights last season.

"We'll absolutely miss 'Bob,'" Zito said. "He was such an important part of our team and our community, our family, but I think these two guys have both the personality and the skill sets to come in and to push our team and get the job done."

3. Can the Panthers stay healthy?

A barrage of injuries that began with captain Aleksander Barkov tearing the ACL and MCL in his right knee during his first practice of training camp contributed to Florida missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season for the first time since 2019. Matthew Tkachuk, Brad Marchand, Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett, Seth Jones, Dmitry Kulikov and Niko Mikkola were also on the long list of Panthers players to miss time because of injuries.

The Panthers will need better luck in that area to return to Cup contender status, though Marchand has undergone offseason surgery. The forward, who was shut down for the season with a lower-body injury with 19 games remaining, said, "I was trying to fix without surgery, but unfortunately that wasn't able to happen."