The Carolina Hurricanes were set to face the Florida Panthers twice this week, however, those games were postponed. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been looking at how the Hurricanes’ roster stacks up against each team in their division and despite the postponed games, in today’s article, I’ll look at how Carolina’s roster matches up against Florida’s roster.
Note: We’ve already released five articles in this series, which you can read here.
Florida lost not one, but two key forwards in the offseason, with Evgenii Dadonov signing in Ottawa and Mike Hoffman heading to St. Louis. Erik Haula also departed, heading to Nashville. Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau can provide high-end offense and the team also added Anthony Duclair, Patric Hornqvist and Alexander Wennberg but they likely won’t be able to replace the scoring they lost in Dadonov and Hoffman. They do have some pretty good depth but again, the difference will be scoring at the top of the lineup. Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen give the Hurricanes one more legitimate top talent up front than the Panthers have in Barkov and Huberdeau, meaning Florida’s offseason departures give Carolina the advantage up front.
Advantage: Hurricanes
DEFENSE
Aaron Ekblad is emerging as a star for the Panthers, while MacKenzie Weegar is good defensively and Radko Gudas was a solid offseason addition. However, Keith Yandle still only excels offensively and Anton Stralman has struggled since joining the Panthers. Florida’s defense was an issue last season and that’s not likely to change a ton this year. The Hurricanes, on the other hand, won’t need to worry defensively, with a solid top-four group and depth on the bottom-pairing, and on their taxi squad. The Panthers have some good pieces but Carolina will certainly have the edge defensively.
Advantage: Hurricanes
GOALTENDING
Sergei Bobrovsky had an awful first season with the Panthers, posting just a .900 save percentage. Chris Dreidger was great last season but the catch was he only played 12 games. As a result, while Carolina’s goaltending duo is nothing special, they’ve got an advantage here. Florida has more potential in net, if Bobrovsky’s game recovers and Driedger can sustain the same level of play over a larger sample size but for now, this is one goaltending battle Carolina could actually win.
Advantage: Hurricanes
The Hurricanes should have a pretty clear advantage over the Hurricanes this season and are likely to finish higher in the Central Division.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Do you think the Hurricanes will finish ahead of the Panthers in the Central Division this season?
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