The Panthers’ message to their four new defensemen? ‘You’re really going to get a chance’
Mike Reilly’s final season as a Bruin was, he readily admits, “not a good year.” He spent more time in the American Hockey League than he did in the NHL, watching from afar while Boston put together one of the best regular seasons in the history of the sport. Not long after the Bruins bought out the final year of his contract Friday, Reilly started to look for somewhere he’d get another chance and landed on the Florida Panthers.
Bill Zito, who was an assistant general manager for the Blue Jackets when they owned Reilly’s rights, reached out to the defenseman and laid out a clear vision for what Reilly’s role might be with the Panthers. Florida’s top two defensemen are going to miss the start of next season with injuries, and the Panthers desperately need players to soak up those minutes. There’s no way Reilly’s not going to get a chance in South Florida.
“I kind of had a good sense on the Panthers and their interest. ... Things moved pretty quickly,” the 29-year-old American said. “The fit’s really good.”
Reilly is one of four new defensemen headed to Florida for next season, all of whom signed on the first day of free agency Saturday.
Reilly is one of the low-risk, high-reward players Florida loves to go after, obviously talented, but maybe not yet given the right chance to succeed at the NHL level.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Dmitry Kulikov are veteran defensemen, both coming to the Panthers on one-year deals to play for a winner, and rebuild some of their value and reputation by playing alongside one of the most talented rosters in the league.
Only fellow defenseman Niko Mikkola got a multiyear deal from Florida, now a newly foundational part of the Panthers’ roster.
Florida will need all of them at the start of the 2023-24 NHL season, and at least two of them even once star defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour return from their injuries.
“We’re going to have opportunities for everybody — which is the most important part — that are real, so people feel fulfilled,” Zito said Saturday. “Did I really get a chance? Yeah, you’re really going to get a chance.”
When the 2023-24 season begins, the Panthers will only have, at most, two of the defensemen who were in their lineup for the final game of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final last month.
Ekblad and Montour will both miss the start of the regular season with injuries they sustained during the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs. Fellow defensemen Radko Gudas and Marc Staal both departed in free agency — Gudas to the Ducks and Staal to the Flyers. Only defensemen Josh Mahura and Gustav Forsling remain from the end of last season.
Florida is going to need Mikkola, Ekman-Larsson, Kulikov and Reilly all to contribute, at least at the start of next year.
“I spoke with Bill over the weekend and that’s kind of what he said,” Reilly said. “There’s going to be a great opportunity.”
As the season goes on and the injured stars return, there will still be two holes fill, after Gudas and Staal left. Mikkola, by virtue of his three-year deal, will be a virtual lock to keep his spot in the lineup, but Ekman-Larsson, Kulikov and Reilly will all get an equal shot to take the final spot in the usual lineup.
At the start of next season, Ekman-Larsson, who’s $2.25 million salary is the most of the defensemen on one-year deals, will probably be the most important because Florida needs a defenseman to take Montour’s spot as the quarterback of the power play and Ekman-Larsson at one point regularly notched about 20 power-play points per season.
Later in the year, Montour and Ekblad should handle nearly all of the Panthers’ power-play minutes, which means Florida will just need the best 5-on-5 and penalty-killing defensemen it can find, and the Panthers are banking on Reilly to become their latest hidden gem.
As recently as the 2021-22 NHL season, Reilly was playing second-pairing minutes and Boston outshot opponents 772-548 in his 1,160:04 of 5-on-5 time on ice.
Mikkola gives Florida stability. Ekman-Larsson and Kulikov, both of whom will be 32 when next season begins, give the Panthers two veterans. Reilly gives them one higher-upside lottery ticket. They just need a few of them to pay off.
“They’ve kind of gotten guys where maybe the year before or year before that really didn’t go their way,” Reilly said. “I feel like I’m kind of in that mold a little bit.”
This story was originally published July 6, 2023 at 3:49 PM.
