Panthers’ trade deadline acquisitions making their presence known in playoffs
When the Florida Panthers got to the trade deadline in March, president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito had his priorities in line.
The team wanted a top-four right-handed defenseman and ideally a couple forwards who could help out on the penalty kill and bolster the team’s overall depth.
All three of those targets were acquired in defenseman Seth Jones along with forwards Brad Marchand and Nico Sturm.
The trio has acclimated almost seamlessly into the Panthers, quickly learning the team’s system and slotting into their roles.
That has been on display throughout Florida’s first-round Stanley Cup playoffs series against the Tampa Bay Lighting, a series in which the Panthers took a 3-1 lead entering Game 5 on Wednesday.
“It just speaks to what our team’s greatest strength is, and that’s our depth,” star winger Matthew Tkachuk said. “They’ve been incredible since coming here. I’m sure coming into the season is very different and tough, but you would never know with those guys. ... It’s taken everybody so far to get to this point.”
Jones, acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks for goaltender Spencer Knight and a conditional first-round pick, has bounced between Florida’s top two defense pairings since his arrival. He is back on the top pair with Gustav Forsling on Wednesday following Aaron Ekblad’s two-game suspension for elbowing Lightning forward Brandon Hagel in the head midway through Monday’s Game 4 of the best-of-7 series.
In his 21 regular-season games with Florida, Jones led the team in average ice time (24:55) while also producing nine points. In the first four games of the playoff series against Tampa Bay, Jones’ average ice time was 25:29, which leads the Panthers and is 12th among all skaters so far this postseason. He had the game-winning goal in Game 4, with his knuckler from the point barreling past Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy with 3:36 left in regulation.
“He’s been unbelievable for us,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “We knew he was a great defenseman before he came here, but seeing it from this close every single day in practice and in the games, what he is doing and how much he is helping us is amazing. It was a huge goal there at the end and it was well deserved.”
Added Panthers coach Maurice: “His range and ability to get from the middle of the ice to the boards, and boards to the middle of the ice. He can move the puck, he can skate, but that range along with [Niko] Mikkola just on size alone to be able to close gaps. Our entire defensive game is built off that concept, so it fits right in.”
Marchand, who played in 1,090 regular season games and another 157 playoff games with the Boston Bruins before coming to Florida for a conditional 2027 second-round pick, has been another veteran presence with the ability to play a clean two-way game and add some extra physicality to Florida’s lineup. He is primarily playing as the right wing on the Panthers’ third line with center Anton Lundell and left wing Eetu Luostarinen, a duo that is young in age but has ample postseason experience (112 total playoff games despite Lundell only being 23 and Luostarinen 26).
Their line opened scoring in Game 4. Marchand hustled down the ice to negate a potential icing call. He and Luostarinen made a couple plays in the corner before Marchand flicked the puck to Lundell in the slot, where he was all alone to score on Vasilevskiy. While he only has two assists so far this series, Marchand has logged seven total scoring chances and five high-danger chances.
But Marchand’s impact for the Panthers extends beyond what he can create on the ice.
“What you don’t know when you can’t see is that he is up and down our bench the entire third period,” Maurice said. “All good stuff. ‘Stay in the fight, fellas.’ Just all positive. He’s got that. And you need that because it’s quiet, right? You’ve got guys who are playing huge minutes that aren’t saying a word because they’re recovering on the bench. You need somebody who just constantly reinforces the positive. The points are valuable, but that’s equally valuable, because there’s just so many situations in a playoff series where you need that belief when it’s going against you. And he was a real driver of that.”
Marchand has transitioned smoothly into his new role. He also knew what to expect playing for Florida after being on the opposite end of their playoff dominance the past two years — the Panthers knocked out the Bruins in the first round in 2023 and the second round in 2024 on their way to consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances.
“When you played against this team, they just had a swagger and a belief where they just kind of kept coming at you, and it didn’t matter what happened throughout the game,” Marchand said. “They just kind of kept coming, believe in their system and they don’t change much. They just continue to do the same thing and they just believed in it, and it worked, which becomes deflating at times when teams just kind of come at you in waves. I think that’s one of the things that we saw in the past, is that they just kind of kept coming.”
As for Sturm, he has quietly fortified Florida’s fourth line and has been integral on the penalty kill since being acquired from the San Jose Sharks. His game isn’t predicated on offensive numbers, but rather controlling the flow of the game. He does that by dominating at the faceoff dot — he has won 53.9 percent of his faceoff attempts so far in the playoffs entering Wednesday, including taking a team-high 26 in the defensive zone and 11 while the team is shorthanded.
He is also a big reason why Florida has shut down Tampa Bay’s potent power play, which was the fifth-best in the league during the regular season (25.9 percent) but went just 1 for 15 through the first four games of the series and has gotten just 13 total shots on goal while playing with an extra skater.
“What I’m hoping for — and what you’re starting to see — is all of these players came in, and the first thing they do is they adapt to your game,” Maurice said. “Our game is significantly different than the styles of games on the teams that they had played, so they adapt to it, but once that adaptation comes, they come back out and you get the player that is who they are. That’s what you’re seeing.”
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