Healthy blue line is the Panthers' real offseason addition

The Panthers' preseason has been a Tkachuk brothers show, and fair enough. But the season previews dropping this week all land on the same quieter point: Florida didn't lose 2025-26 because of skill. It lost the blue line, one body at a time.

The Associated Press preview lays out the wreckage. Florida went 40-38-4 and missed the playoffs, a year after back-to-back Cups. Aleksander Barkov tore his ACL and MCL about 20 minutes into training camp and never played. Per NHL.com, the Cats finished seventh in the Atlantic.

The defense took the worst of it. Sports Illustrated's Craig Davis notes that by the end of the year, Gustav Forsling was the only opening-day defenseman still standing.

Dmitry Kulikov tore his shoulder labrum and also broke his nose and a finger. Seth Jones broke his collarbone at the Winter Classic and then fractured his foot late. Aaron Ekblad broke a finger. Niko Mikkola's knee went. Uvis Balinskis hurt his foot.

That's five regulars on the shelf at various points. You don't win games with the guys who were supposed to be in Charlotte.

Why it matters

Paul Maurice isn't pretending the forwards are the story. "It's the defensemen that are going to decide whether you're a winner or a loser," he told SI. The projected pairs, per SI and NHL.com, are the ones Florida wanted a year ago: Forsling with Ekblad, Mikkola with Jones, and Kulikov with newcomer Radko Gudas.

Gudas is the interesting one. He's a right shot who plays the wall like it owes him money, and he lets Kulikov go back to being a stay-at-home partner instead of a guy asked to do everything.

Behind them, Jacob Markstrom and Akira Schmid replace Sergei Bobrovsky, per the AP. Markstrom went 23-19-1 with a 3.07 goals-against average in New Jersey last year, per NHL.com. Schmid had 16 wins and a 2.59 in 34 games with Vegas.

Neither is Bob. Both will look a lot better behind a defense that finishes the season with the same six it started with.

Ferda take

The schedule is the part nobody's talking about. The AP notes 22 of Florida's first 35 games are on the road, starting Sept. 29 in Carolina. That's a long stretch of last change going to the other bench and a lot of nights where the third pair gets fed to a top line.

If the Cats reach mid-December over .500 with everyone upright, that's a win. The East won't care what the roster looks like on paper, only who's actually dressing.

Brad Marchand won't be back for the start after offseason surgery, per NHL.com, so the top nine will have a hole for a while. Jack Devine, who put up 43 points in 63 AHL games, is the name to watch for that spot.

What's next

Preseason game two is tonight in Raleigh, and the games that count start there a week later. Jones already called the opener "a playoff-type game," per SI. He's not wrong. The defending champs are the first test, and Florida gets to face them with a healthy lineup this time.