Three ways veteran forward Lars Eller is a fit for the Florida Panthers
Lars Eller is no stranger to joining a new team. He has played for a half dozen NHL organizations across his 17-year career, including two separate stints with the Washington Captials.
So moving on to his seventh, in this case the Florida Panthers, feels pretty commonplace now.
“It’s a little bit easier now that I’ve done it a handful of times, walking into a new room,” Eller said Monday in his introductory media availability.
But Eller, who signed a one-year, $850,000 deal with the Panthers last week, said there’s something else about this signing, about this move, that feels different.
“It’s a little bit easier when you walk into a team where everybody’s is comfortable with who they are, where they are on the team, where they fit in,” Eller said. “The core of guys have been there for a long time. The best teams are where every personality and person just can fit in and be themselves. I get the feel that’s exactly the case with the Florida Panthers.”
The core of Florida’s roster is indeed established. The Panthers have a group of 12 players who have been with the team for at least the past two seasons — most much longer than that — and are under contract through at least the 2029-30 season. This is the group that paved the way for three consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances from 2023 to 2025, championships in 2024 and 2025 and has Florida among the perennial contenders for the Cup for years to come.
It’s also the group that makes players such as Eller welcomed. The team values its depth as much as it does its stars. It understands that every player’s role is paramount to achieving sustained championship success.
Eller, who turned 37 in May, recognized that from a distance the past few years. And as he hit free agency this offseason, he recognized that, if given the chance, he felt he could be of benefit to a team that already has a pretty potent lineup.
“Florida is a very desirable destination,” Eller said. “There’s a lot of things that makes it a super competitive team. I think everybody knows it’s good living. Just a lot of things that made sense for me. I think the fit between what I bring and what the club was looking for — that’s kind of always the first thing: How do you fit it? How does the management see you fitting into the team, and where do you see yourself fitting into the team from that perspective? I think it made sense for both sides.”
So what exactly is the fit?
Here are three ways Eller can be of benefit to the Panthers.
1). Florida’s need for a fourth-line center
While the Panthers bolstered the top of their forward depth chart when they acquired forward Brady Tkachuk from the Senators in late June, they cut into their center depth when they traded Evan Rodrigues and Jesper Boqvist to the New Jersey Devils in order to get starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom.
Aleksander Barkov, Sam Bennett and Anton Lundell will center Florida’s top three lines. Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe, Brady and Matthew Tkachuk, Eetu Luostarinen and Brad Marchand will be on the wings of those lines.
But the void at fourth-line center was noticeable.
Enter Eller, who has played in 1,184 career regular-season games, plays a strong checking game and can handle the grinding minutes can come with the fourth line.
Florida will have plenty of competition for the three spots on that fourth line. Garnet Hathaway, Jonah Gadjovich, Cole Schwindt, Cole Reinhardt and Sandis Vilmanis are also vying for regular playing time.
2). You can never have too much playoff experience
Eller hasn’t just experienced a lengthy NHL career.
He has been through his share of playoff battles.
Eller has reached the Stanley Cup playoffs in 13 of his 17 seasons, including winning the Stanley Cup in 2018 with Washington. He has played in 116 postseason games overall, tied for the 31st most among active skaters, and has 50 points (15 goals, 35 assists) in those contests.
However, he has only made it past the first round once in seven tries since hoisting Lord Stanley, getting to the second round with the Capitals in 2025 before falling to the Carolina Hurricanes.
The quest for a second championship still fuels him.
“I’m as hungry as ever,” Eller said. “I want to say I still have that same hunger as I when I came into the league almost two decades ago. Once you’ve had a taste of winning, it doesn’t satisfy that hunger to really want to go out and do it again. And I think this team has also proved that they have that hunger in them.”
3). An extra forward to kill penalties
Panthers coach Paul Maurice has shown a tendency to utilize his fourth-line center on the penalty kill. In 2023-24, Kevin Stenlund was one of Florida’s primary forwards in that role. When healthy, Tomas Nosek did his part on the penalty kill the past two years as well.
Eller will fit into that role should he be needed.
While his time on the penalty kill has dipped the past two seasons, Eller has been a steady presence on the ice when his team is playing a man down.
Florida has plenty of forwards who can kill penalties — Barkov, Lundell, Reinhart and Luostarinen the main names. But if Eller can handle minutes there and cut down the already large ice time that Barkov and Reinhart handle, it would benefit the Panthers long-term.
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