NHL Rumors: Seattle Kraken, New York Rangers, Florida Panthers

Welcome to another edition of Full Press Hockey’s NHL Rumors! The 2022-23 season is over, and players and front offices will be evaluated. Now, the focus shifts toward the new season. Training camps have begun with preseason games taking place. Rosters will be finalized. Teams are always looking to improve, and the excitement of a new NHL season is upon us. And, it only comes to pass that predictions on NHL teams will be all over the place. We cover some of them in this edition of NHL rumors.

In this Wednesday edition of NHL Rumors, we’ll examine the Seattle Kraken, New York Rangers, and the Florida Panthers.

NHL rumors in this edition include:

Predictions on how well the Seattle Kraken may do after a successful second season. Will the New York Rangers manage to finish in the top three in the Metro again? Will the lack of defense stagnate the Florida Panthers’ hopes to get to the Cup Final again?

Seattle Kraken – Is their depth enough?

Rumor: Per – Tristin McKinstry – clutchpoints.com. Can Matty Beniers avoid the sophomore jinx and lead the Kraken to the postseason again?

• Matthew Beniers will have another good season, but it won’t be a breakout season. After winning the Calder Trophy as the most valuable rookie last season, he may have a bit of a letdown.
• After signing a four-year, $29.4 million contract, Vince Dunn will continue his excellent play. He is by far the best blueliner on the Kraken roster. The question will be can he be a consistent 60-point performer? Certainly… why not?
• The Kraken excel with their depth. Seattle can roll all four lines better than any team, and they can feel comfortable with all four lines in any situation. The playoffs are in their future, even if it will be a bit more difficult this upcoming season. Don’t forget they will be without Daniel Sprong, who scored 21 goals on the third line and signed with the Detroit Red Wings.
• As far as the goaltending goes, Philipp Grubauer played well in the playoffs (7-7, .903 SV%, 2.99 GAA), but during the regular season, he wasn’t great (17-14-4, .895 SV%, 2.85 GAA). Joey Daccord is fine as a backup, but he’s not the most inspiring option in goal either.
• The Kraken may be fighting for a playoff spot this new season, whereas it seemed like they coasted to that level last season.

New York Rangers – Third-place finish again?

Rumor: Per – Nathanial Duffett – clutchpoints.com. Will the Rangers be good enough to finish in the top three in the Metro again?

• The performance of star goalie Igor Shesterkin and their deep forward core will determine how good they are.
• The Rangers brought in Blake Wheeler, Nick Bonino, Erik Gustafsson, and Jonathan Quick. Will it be enough to overcome a much faster, younger team in the New Jersey Devils? Or, for that matter, to even overcome the Carolina Hurricanes, who added Michael Bunting, Dmitry Orlov and Anthony DeAngelo. It won’t be easy.
• Will Kaapo Kakko improve to the level the club expects of him? He scored at a 0.49 per game level, and he really needs to push that upward to prevent him from being labeled a draft bust.
• Was adding Blake Wheeler a risky move? He is 37, but they only spent $800,000 to add him to the roster. If he falters, two young players, Brennan Othmann and Will Cuylle, will be standing by to replace him.
• A wild-card spot may be the best this team can expect. Anything better than that will be a pleasant surprise.

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Florida Panthers – Can their defense excel?

Rumor: Per – Colin Gallant – clutchpoints.com. The Panthers are fresh off a Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Final, but it could be a long season in South Beach without a few key D-men.

• Injuries plagued the Cats in their Cup quest. Some things never change. Gone are Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad, the team’s two best defensemen, until reportedly mid-December. Anthony Duclair and Radko Gudas are also absent from last year’s roster.
• Matthew Tkachuk may be the key to whether this team can duplicate its efforts of last season. He tallied 40 goals and 109 points in 79 games, paced the club.
• Don’t look for Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Dmitry Kulikov, Mike Reilly or Niko Mikkola to replace the loss of Montour and Ekblad.
• The bold prediction here… are you ready for this? Is that the Panthers will miss the 2023-24 playoffs! The defense and goalkeeping are faltering, and that is the key to get to the playoffs and beyond.
• The Buffalo Sabres, Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings all have postseason aspirations and this could bode poorly for the Panthers to be that underdog team once again.

That concluded this edition of NHL rumors. Be sure to catch our next article, and thanks for reading!