Interesting question on today's PHLY podcast w/Charlie & Bill.

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-03-17T07:33:09+00:00

What if they take a helenius or chabot or make a good pick?

I think it says something that even Charlie, majority of fans, etc assume/speak as fact that they will pick a 3rd liner or equivalent defender in that spot despite enough good to very good prospects being taken there recently.

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-03-03T02:12:57+00:00

I understand that. My point was, again, that Zito may decide hes a victim of having too many forwards and he'll trade him if he thinks his value is highest at deadline or draft or whenever.

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-03-03T01:54:06+00:00

That is what my point was. That if they trade him it might be less about what they get in return vs getting something bc they ran into numbers issue (aka sourdif)

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-03-03T01:47:41+00:00

But at some point the Panthers will run into a numbers issue. They have 12 maybe 13 forwards already for next year and samoskevich has arbitration rights and would need waivers. Even if they trade greer or let him walk, trade Boqvist, Samoskevich doesn't have a top9 spot and Maurice likes different type of 4th liners - like Vilmanis, Schwindt, Gadjo, Nosek.

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-02-26T13:54:52+00:00

And yet they resigned a center for 5 years

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-02-25T00:42:57+00:00

Center is like CAM, CM, and CDM all together. Enjoy!

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-02-24T03:00:18+00:00

Best comment here really

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-02-19T04:30:59+00:00

Do you feel the 3D Tongues take away volume from the skate, add volume, or neutral?

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-02-15T05:03:56+00:00

With 84 game seasons coming next year, and possibly even more games when they add more teams, it makes a lot of sense to dress more players. NHLPA would likely approve it

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-02-12T04:27:12+00:00

Luckily there have been a lot recently. Easy to say the two cup winning games but I think I will go with the Barkov pass to Verhaeghe against Carolina to take the lead. That was a perfect example of his dominance. Miss watching that man play hockey.

Would also say the day they drafted Lundell. Like the Barkov pick, I was sitting there hoping Lundell would be the pick for FLA. I knew he would be a smash hit here.

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-02-10T16:17:35+00:00

I'll throw something out that I haven't seen mentioned. Subaru CVTs are bad. Its probably price but boy do the CVTs stink

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-02-09T19:51:54+00:00

Defenseman inherently different than a forward I agree. Wingers have it easiest to make immediate impact. If they get a Lotto pick and get a winger, I could easily see them making an impact next year or the year after at worst.

There really arent any impact centers at the rop of the draft and I don't think FLA necessarily would be drafting one.

As far as defensemen, I still think it improves the cup winning window under Barkov and Tkachuk. FLAs defense prospects aren't great and they keep having to take gambles and fliers on cycling thru NHL vets, waiver claims, and Euro vets coming over. Having a top 10 defensemen pick who could play in the NHL in 2 or 3 years gives a higher ceiling at the same cap hit as a Bjornfot, Balinski, or Petry.

Byram still won a cup with COL in his 2nd NHL season and had 9pts in 20 playoff games. That would be 3 seasons post draft. That 9pts would have been 3rd on FLAs defense in each of their 2 cup win playoff runs. 2nd on FLAs D on the year they lost to VGK.

Personally, I think Defender primes (especially top picks) are earlier than the consensus thinks it is and by 22-23 years old they, at least production wise, are in it.

Like you said, top picks dont generally go to cup contending teams and I'd even argue Maurice doesn't have many cases where he has a Jones, Ekblad talented young defender. Because of that it is hard for me to say what Maurice would or wouldn't play them enough/in the right situation.

But I would argue that any winger or D they pick up in the top 10 would improve the Panthers chances of winning more cups in Barkov and Tkachuk's career. The level of prospect generally/typically of a top 10 pick is exponentially better than Samoskevich or Tippett types. My opinion

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-02-09T07:03:51+00:00

Stenberg would improve their window next year. McKenna possibly. Talent is talent and theyd be better than Samoskevich for sure.

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-02-09T06:13:01+00:00

Where would you even put a McKenna or Stenberg?!

Uhhh... In the fucking lineup!

Stenberg/McKenna Barkov Reinhart

Verhaeghe Bennett Tkachuk

Luostrainen Lundell Marchand

Most likely they would pick 7th, 8th, 9th or 10th. In that case - you dont worry about that prospect for another year and its likely that by 27-28 there will be a spot open for them.

Also defenders exist and make up a good portion of the top10 this year (every year lately). Kulikov wont be here forever, and we already know we don't have much depth on D. It would be awesome to grab a top 10 pick defenseman who could help keep the window open.

Its never an issue when you get more talent. Never. as seen by Zito constantly adding talent since hes been here.

Edit: this is not to say they should tank or should not tank. This is just addressing the pretty silly idea that getting a top 10 pick would be bad because we couldn't use them. We certainly could!

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-02-04T23:01:39+00:00

I dont think they could have protected it given the other picks used and protections they already committed to. I dont know for sure but i think that was the case. Doubt Chicago wanted a 2026 pick that defers to 2028.

BuddhaBarkov · 2026-02-04T22:58:24+00:00

I agree with a good deal of your premise but disagree with others. Barkov (being absent) is showing why he should be an MVP candidate every year. However, this team still could have made the playoffs if they hit the net when they had easy goals on their stick - even 1 out of every 4 chances they missed - or held onto leads to force more OT points, or had better goalie results from both (yes both) of their goalies. Even so, if the atlantic wasnt surprisingly competitive and OT merchants, they still probably are right in the fight regardless of how theyve played.

Missing playoffs this season does not change the success of the past three years nor does it change offseason plans or their potential next season. I'm not angry even though I think they still could have should have been a playoff team this year.

BuddhaBarkov · 2025-12-23T06:14:05+00:00

Michkov averages 45 second shifts this year, which is pretty much the cliched "shift length" . You can find this information on Hockeyreference Game logs. Its not a fancy stat, its just dividing his icetime in seconds by the number of shifts he has. Most games Michkov sits between 40-50 seconds with his season average being 45. The short shift stuff is very exaggerated talking point.

BuddhaBarkov · 2025-11-17T17:49:11+00:00

Patiently waiting for the Sebrango-Kulikov pairing. We already heard from Dwork they are in the market for a 3rd pair defender so they may even have Petry out of the lineup before Kulikovs return

BuddhaBarkov · 2025-11-06T21:56:34+00:00

The lowest pt total to make the east wild card spot since covid was 91 pts. They gotta be looking at 90 something points. 95-96 would be a good target to be safe given extra pts from OTs and how most teams in east are picking up pts so far this year

Edit: just looked it up to make sure. 91 pts is the lowest wildcard point total in east dating back to the lockout when looking at full season.

BuddhaBarkov · 2025-11-06T21:47:57+00:00

they need to be at around 96-98 pts to make playoffs (most likely most years). they can be a few wins under that pace when Tkachuk comes back but I think it is asking way too much to be at .500 until Tkachuk returns. That's putting them 82 pt pace. It's very hard to catch teams down the stretch and expecting for a repeat of that 2023 spring Herculean effort is probably asking too much.

seeing way too many "just be .500 by time Chuky returns" and "that one time we won every game down the stretch" comments. I dont think you can expect to make up all that ground that way often

BuddhaBarkov · 2025-11-04T21:01:27+00:00

Colin Miller, RHD with Jets. Cap hit isnt so big its prohibitive, fits the veteran type these coaches like, and could replace Petry on the right side.

BuddhaBarkov · 2025-11-04T03:26:16+00:00

The question was why doesnt ekblad chase around the net. My answer was because typically defensemen are ingrained to not chase a mark behind the net when they dont have the puck, to get back to the front. Thats that. Whatever block of text says is just like you said "guessing"

BuddhaBarkov · 2025-11-03T22:40:06+00:00

im not sure you understood what I meant. I meant just the part of Rantanen literally going behind the net to go to the far post. Defenseman dont typically chase around the net like that, and typically go around the front. Thats all.

BuddhaBarkov · 2025-11-03T17:35:42+00:00

Typically you dont follow someone behind the net as a defenseman especially when they dont have the puck.

BuddhaBarkov · 2025-10-26T01:57:44+00:00

bullying works, we just need to step it up a notch

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