Montour, who signed a seven-year contract with the Seattle Kraken, led the Panthers in averaging 23:27 of ice time per game, was second among their defensemen with 33 points (eight goals, 25 assists) in 66 games (Gustav Forsling, 39 points), and led their defensemen with 17 power-play points (one goal, 16 assists). Ekman-Larsson, who signed a four-year contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, had 32 points (nine goals, 23 assists) in 80 games, including 11 (one goal, 10 assists) on the power play.
To help fill the void, Florida signed Nate Schmidt and Adam Boqvist each to a one-year contract hoping they’ll rebound after their deals were bought out by the Winnipeg Jets and Columbus Blue Jackets, respectively. But the Panthers expect it to be a group effort involving Schmidt, Boqvist and their returning defensemen.
“One way to describe would be defense by committee,” Zito said. “We were in a similar situation last year where he had Ekman-Larsson coming in, [Niko] Mikkola coming in, [Radko] Gudas had gone on to Anaheim and it was, ‘Well, we could script how we think it might go, but we know we’ve got some good players. Let’s get everyone together and we’ll just get the job done and then see where it goes.’”
