The Panthers have a goalie quandary, but it makes sense to keep Bobrovsky (for now)
Less than eight weeks before he made his playoff debut for the Florida Panthers in a must-win game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Spencer Knight called the NHL a “far-off fantasy land.” He had just finished his career with the Boston College Eagles and signed his entry-level contract with the Panthers, and it still didn’t feel real.
Florida wasn’t banking on much from the goaltender, either. Coach Joel Quenneville’s initial plan was to let him start one game, just to let him get his feet wet ahead of a true rookie season next year. One regular-season start became three after Chris Driedger got injured, and then three regular-season starts became a pair of postseason starts after Sergei Bobrovsky and Chris Driedger faltered in the first round of the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs.
In less than two months, reasonable expectations for Knight changed dramatically. Now he looks like the sort of goalie who should be battling for a starting job in the 2021-22 NHL season and, with Bobrovsky on one of the league’s biggest contracts, the Panthers have a legitimate goaltending dilemma on their hands.
“We need to approach each season from a fresh perspective, and we’re going to do that,” general manager Bill Zito said June 2. “We’ll get with the goaltending department and we’ll evaluate, and we’ll do everything in our power — as we do with all the players — to help each of our players, individually and collectively, be as good as they can be. And I think they will be.”
Knight has two seasons left on his entry-level contract and then he will become a restricted free agent, and he was by far Florida’s best goalie in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Bobrovsky is entering the third year of a seven-year, $70 million contract, which makes him the highest-paid goaltender in hockey. Driedger, who finished the regular season with the league’s fifth best save percentage, is an unrestricted free agent.
Driedger, because the other two goaltenders are locked up on multiyear deals, is virtually guaranteed to be playing elsewhere next season. Bobrovsky and Knight, barring something unforeseen, will be back. Quenneville will have to figure out the balance to strike.
“That’ll get talked about with Bob’s situation here. He handled it like a pro. I commend him on a tough situation that he was just moving, being a good teammate and he knew he was getting himself ready to come in as soon as possible,” the coach said last month. “In talking with him going forward as well, it was a situation where he wants to play, but I think he has an understanding of the situation we have now, so we’ll sort the goalie stuff out over the course of the summer.”
A buyout for Bobrovsky, at this juncture, is unlikely. The Panthers would pay out $18 million across 10 years, rather than $27 million across five, and save $4.2 million in cap space for each of the next two years, according to CapFriendly.com. For the following three years, Florida would save $3.2 million, then it would carry a $1.8 million cap hit for the next five through 2031. The Panthers are otherwise in a good cap situation with about $9 million in space heading into the offseason.
Despite the postseason meltdown, Bobrovsky was a decent enough starter in the 2020-21 NHL season, and Florida has a use for him as a veteran mentor for Knight — and a fallback plan in case their 20-year-old goalie with just six games of professional experience isn’t quite ready to be a full-time starter.
“They were great. Both Bob and Driedgs were awesome,” Knight said last month. “They welcomed me with open arms, made me feel so comfortable. They’re obviously great goalies, but they’re tremendous people and just having that in the locker room — it helps a lot, just having guys like that who have been around the block a little bit just to kind of show the ropes.”
Knight, after all, did have a save percentage worse than .900 in three of his five starts this year, and Bobrovsky is still only four years removed from winning his second Vezina Trophy. While he ultimately outplayed Bobrovsky in his small sample size and has the Panthers trusting in him as their goalie of the future, Knight is still truly unproven and won’t catch anyone by surprise next season.
Zito trusts Quenneville will play whoever is most deserving. By the end of the year, it was Knight, but there’s no guarantee it will be across a full 82-game season next year.
“I can’t sit here and tell you specifically what the future’s going to hold,” Zito said. “We’re going to review everything thoroughly and reach a decision.”
This story was originally published June 16, 2021 at 11:40 AM.
