2017–18 Florida Panthers season

2017–18 Florida Panthers
2017–18 Florida Panthers
Division	4th Atlantic
Conference	9th Eastern
2017–18 record	44–30–8
Home record	27–11–3
Road record	17–19–5
Goals for	248
Goals against	246
Team information
General manager	Dale Tallon
Coach	Bob Boughner
Captain	Derek MacKenzie
Alternate captains	Aleksander Barkov; Aaron Ekblad; Vincent Trocheck; Keith Yandle
Arena	BB&T Center
Average attendance	13,851
Minor league affiliate(s)	Springfield Thunderbirds (AHL)
Team leaders
Goals	Vincent Trocheck (31)
Assists	Aleksander Barkov (51)
Points	Aleksander Barkov (78)
Penalty minutes	Micheal Haley (212)
Plus/minus	Jared McCann (+11)
Wins	James Reimer (22)
Goals against average	Roberto Luongo (2.47)
	← 2016–17 2018–19 →

The 2017–18 Florida Panthers season was the 24th season for the National Hockey League franchise that was established on June 14, 1993.^[2] The Panthers missed the playoffs for the second straight season, despite recording 96 points, tied with the 2014–15 Boston Bruins and 2018–19 Montreal Canadiens for the most by a team to miss the playoffs.

Standings edit

Atlantic Division
Pos	Team v t e	GP	W	L	OTL	ROW	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	z – Tampa Bay Lightning	82	54	23	5	48	296	236	+60	113
2	x – Boston Bruins	82	50	20	12	47	270	214	+56	112
3	x – Toronto Maple Leafs	82	49	26	7	42	277	232	+45	105
4	Florida Panthers	82	44	30	8	41	248	246	+2	96
5	Detroit Red Wings	82	30	39	13	25	217	255	−38	73
6	Montreal Canadiens	82	29	40	13	27	209	264	−55	71
7	Ottawa Senators	82	28	43	11	26	221	291	−70	67
8	Buffalo Sabres	82	25	45	12	24	199	280	−81	62

Source: National Hockey League^[3]
x – Clinched playoff spot; z – Clinched conference

Eastern Conference Wild Card
Pos	Div	Team v t e	GP	W	L	OTL	ROW	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	ME	x – Columbus Blue Jackets	82	45	30	7	39	242	230	+12	97
2	ME	x – New Jersey Devils	82	44	29	9	39	248	244	+4	97

3	AT	Florida Panthers	82	44	30	8	41	248	246	+2	96
4	ME	Carolina Hurricanes	82	36	35	11	33	228	256	−28	83
5	ME	New York Islanders	82	35	37	10	32	264	296	−32	80
6	ME	New York Rangers	82	34	39	9	31	231	268	−37	77
7	AT	Detroit Red Wings	82	30	39	13	25	217	255	−38	73
8	AT	Montreal Canadiens	82	29	40	13	27	209	264	−55	71
9	AT	Ottawa Senators	82	28	43	11	26	221	291	−70	67
10	AT	Buffalo Sabres	82	25	45	12	24	199	280	−81	62

Source: National Hockey League^[4]
x – Clinched playoff spot

Schedule and results edit

Preseason edit

The preseason schedule was released on June 9, 2017.^[5]

2017 preseason game log: 4–1–1 (Home: 2–0–0 ; Road: 2–1–1)
#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	OT	Decision	Attendance	Record	Recap
1	September 19	Florida	5–3	Nashville		Sateri	—	1–0–0	Recap
2	September 19	Florida	2–3	Nashville	OT	Montembeault	—	1–0–1	Recap
3	September 24	Florida	4–2	Tampa Bay		Reimer	12,911	2–0–1	Recap
4	September 26	Tampa Bay	2–4	Florida		Luongo	8,242	3–0–1	Recap
5	September 28	Tampa Bay	2–5	Florida		Reimer	13,279	4–0–1	Recap
6	September 29	Florida	1–3	Montreal		Luongo	21,288	4–1–1	Recap

Regular season edit

The regular season schedule was published on June 22, 2017.^[6]

2017–18 game log

October: 4–6–1 (Home: 3–2–1 ; Road: 1–4–0)
#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	OT	Decision	Attendance	Record	Pts	Recap
1	October 6	Florida	3–5	Tampa Bay		Luongo	19,092	0–1–0	0	Recap
2	October 7	Tampa Bay	4–5	Florida		Reimer	16,871	1–1–0	2	Recap
3	October 12	St. Louis	2–5	Florida		Luongo	10,846	2–1–0	4	Recap
4	October 14	Florida	3–4	Pittsburgh		Reimer	18,582	2–2–0	4	Recap
5	October 17	Florida	1–5	Philadelphia		Luongo	19,145	2–3–0	4	Recap
6	October 20	Pittsburgh	4–3	Florida		Reimer	15,756	2–4–0	4	Recap
7	October 21	Florida	4–1	Washington		Reimer	18,506	3–4–0	6	Recap
8	October 24	Florida	1–5	Montreal		Reimer	21,302	3–5–0	6	Recap
9	October 26	Anaheim	3–8	Florida		Reimer	10,545	4–5–0	8	Recap
10	October 28	Detroit	3–2	Florida	SO	Reimer	13,085	4–5–1	9	Recap
11	October 30	Tampa Bay	8–5	Florida		Niemi	9,493	4–6–1	9	Recap

November: 6–6–1 (Home: 2–2–1 ; Road: 4–4–0)
#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	OT	Decision	Attendance	Record	Pts	Recap
12	November 2	Columbus	7–3	Florida		Reimer	9,311	4–7–1	9	Recap
13	November 4	NY Rangers	5–4	Florida	OT	Luongo	15,036	4–7–2	10	Recap
14	November 7	Florida	1–3	Carolina		Luongo	8,828	4–8–2	10	Recap
15	November 10	Florida	4–1	Buffalo		Luongo	17,812	5–8–2	12	Recap
16	November 11	Florida	1–2	New Jersey		Reimer	16,514	5–9–2	12	Recap
17	November 14	Dallas	3–4	Florida	SO	Luongo	10,928	6–9–2	14	Recap
18	November 16	Florida	2–0	San Jose		Luongo	16,411	7–9–2	16	Recap
19	November 18	Florida	0–4	Los Angeles		Reimer	18,230	7–10–2	16	Recap
20	November 19	Florida	2–3	Anaheim		Luongo	17,174	7–11–2	16	Recap
21	November 22	Toronto	1–2	Florida	SO	Luongo	15,256	8–11–2	18	Recap
22	November 25	Chicago	4–1	Florida		Luongo	14,302	8–12–2	18	Recap
23	November 27	Florida	3–2	New Jersey		Luongo	13,184	9–12–2	20	Recap
24	November 28	Florida	5–4	NY Rangers		Reimer	17,376	10–12–2	22	Recap

December: 7–4–3 (Home: 5–2–1 ; Road: 2–2–2)
#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	OT	Decision	Attendance	Record	Pts	Recap
25	December 1	San Jose	2–1	Florida		Luongo	12,323	10–13–2	22	Recap
26	December 2	Florida	2–3	Carolina	OT	Reimer	14,246	10–13–3	23	Recap
27	December 4	NY Islanders	5–4	Florida	SO	Reimer	11,210	10–13–4	24	Recap
28	December 7	Winnipeg	4–6	Florida		Reimer	10,768	11–13–4	26	Recap
29	December 9	Colorado	7–3	Florida		Reimer	13,821	11–14–4	26	Recap
30	December 11	Florida	2–1	Detroit	OT	Reimer	19,515	12–14–4	28	Recap
31	December 12	Florida	2–3	Chicago	OT	Reimer	21,795	12–14–5	29	Recap
32	December 14	Florida	1–2	Colorado		Reimer	13,096	12–15–5	29	Recap
33	December 17	Florida	2–5	Vegas		Reimer	17,593	12–16–5	29	Recap
34	December 19	Florida	3–2	Arizona		Reimer	10,203	13–16–5	31	Recap
35	December 22	Minnesota	2–4	Florida		Reimer	13,259	14–16–5	33	Recap
36	December 23	Ottawa	0–1	Florida		Reimer	13,694	15–16–5	35	Recap
37	December 28	Philadelphia	2–3	Florida		Reimer	17,083	16–16–5	37	Recap
38	December 30	Montreal	0–2	Florida		Reimer	18,013	17–16–5	39	Recap

January: 3–6–1 (Home: 1–2–0 ; Road: 2–4–1)
#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	OT	Decision	Attendance	Record	Pts	Recap
39	January 2	Florida	1–5	Minnesota		Reimer	19,029	17–17–5	39	Recap
—	January 4	Florida	—	Boston	Postponed due to the effects of the January 2018 nor'easter, rescheduled to April 8
40	January 5	Florida	2–4	Detroit		Reimer	19,515	17–18–5	39	Recap
41	January 7	Florida	2–3	Columbus	SO	Reimer	16,535	17–18–6	40	Recap
42	January 9	Florida	7–4	St. Louis		Reimer	18,783	18–18–6	42	Recap
43	January 12	Calgary	4–2	Florida		Reimer	14,519	18–19–6	42	Recap
44	January 19	Vegas	3–4	Florida	OT	Reimer	17,468	19–19–6	44	Recap
45	January 20	Florida	3–4	Nashville		Sateri	17,441	19–20–6	44	Recap
46	January 23	Florida	1–6	Dallas		Sateri	17,987	19–21–6	44	Recap
47	January 25	Washington	4–2	Florida		Sateri	14,033	19–22–6	44	Recap
48	January 30	Florida	4–1	NY Islanders		Sateri	10,423	20–22–6	46	Recap

February: 9–3–0 (Home: 5–1–0 ; Road: 4–2–0)
#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	OT	Decision	Attendance	Record	Pts	Recap
49	February 1	Florida	4–2	Buffalo		Sateri	16,707	21–22–6	48	Recap
50	February 3	Detroit	2–3	Florida		Sateri	17,987	22–22–6	50	Recap
51	February 6	Vancouver	1–3	Florida		Sateri	10,758	23–22–6	52	Recap
52	February 9	Los Angeles	3–1	Florida		Sateri	14,099	23–23–6	52	Recap
53	February 12	Florida	7–5	Edmonton		Reimer	18,347	24–23–6	54	Recap
54	February 14	Florida	4–3	Vancouver		Reimer	17,412	25–23–6	56	Recap
55	February 17	Florida	6–3	Calgary		Luongo	19,289	26–23–6	58	Recap
56	February 18	Florida	2–7	Winnipeg		Reimer	15,321	26–24–6	58	Recap
57	February 20	Florida	0–1	Toronto		Luongo	18,961	26–25–6	58	Recap
58	February 22	Washington	2–3	Florida		Luongo	15,312	27–25–6	60	Recap
59	February 24	Pittsburgh	5–6	Florida		Luongo	17,581	28–25–6	62	Recap
60	February 27	Toronto	2–3	Florida	OT	Luongo	14,265	29–25–6	64	Recap

March: 10–5–2 (Home: 7–2–0 ; Road: 3–3–2)
#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	OT	Decision	Attendance	Record	Pts	Recap
61	March 1	New Jersey	2–3	Florida		Luongo	10,846	30–25–6	66	Recap
62	March 2	Buffalo	1–4	Florida		Reimer	12,759	31–25–6	68	Recap
63	March 4	Philadelphia	1–4	Florida		Luongo	14,428	32–25–6	70	Recap
64	March 6	Florida	4–5	Tampa Bay	OT	Luongo	19,092	32–25–7	71	Recap
65	March 8	Montreal	0–5	Florida		Luongo	14,901	33–25–7	73	Recap
66	March 10	NY Rangers	3–4	Florida	SO	Luongo	16,712	34–25–7	75	Recap
67	March 12	Ottawa	5–3	Florida		Luongo	11,585	34–26–7	75	Recap
68	March 15	Boston	0–3	Florida		Reimer	16,067	35–26–7	77	Recap
69	March 17	Edmonton	4–2	Florida		Luongo	14,192	35–27–7	77	Recap
70	March 19	Florida	2–0	Montreal		Luongo	21,302	36–27–7	79	Recap
71	March 20	Florida	7–2	Ottawa		Reimer	14,434	37–27–7	81	Recap
72	March 22	Florida	0–4	Columbus		Luongo	16,919	37–28–7	81	Recap
73	March 24	Arizona	2–4	Florida		Reimer	14,905	38–28–7	83	Recap
74	March 26	Florida	3–0	NY Islanders		Reimer	10,951	39–28–7	85	Recap
75	March 28	Florida	3–4	Toronto		Luongo	18,893	39–29–7	85	Recap
76	March 29	Florida	2–3	Ottawa	OT	Reimer	15,095	39–29–8	86	Recap
77	March 31	Florida	1–5	Boston		Reimer	17,565	39–30–8	86	Recap

April: 5–0–0 (Home: 4–0–0 ; Road: 1–0–0)
#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	OT	Decision	Attendance	Record	Pts	Recap
78	April 2	Carolina	2–3	Florida		Luongo	10,619	40–30–8	88	Recap
79	April 3	Nashville	1–2	Florida		Luongo	12,147	41–30–8	90	Recap
80	April 5	Boston	2–3	Florida		Luongo	14,860	42–30–8	92	Recap
81	April 7	Buffalo	3–4	Florida		Reimer	16,254	43–30–8	94	Recap
82	April 8	Florida	4–2	Boston		Reimer	17,565	44–30–8	96	Recap

Legend: Win (2 points) Loss (0 points) Overtime/shootout loss (1 point)

Player statistics edit

As of April 9, 2018^[7]

Skaters edit

Regular season
Player	GP	G	A	Pts	+/−	PIM
Aleksander Barkov	79	27	51	78	9	14
Vincent Trocheck	82	31	44	75	−9	54
Jonathan Huberdeau	82	27	42	69	−2	32
Evgenii Dadonov	74	28	37	65	10	8
Keith Yandle	82	8	48	56	7	35
Nick Bjugstad	82	19	30	49	5	41
Aaron Ekblad	82	16	22	38	9	71
Jamie McGinn	76	13	16	29	−5	33
Jared McCann	68	9	19	28	11	30
Michael Matheson	81	10	17	27	−1	61
Colton Sceviour	76	11	13	24	6	24
Denis Malgin	51	11	11	22	4	6
Mark Pysyk	82	3	13	16	−8	20
Radim Vrbata	42	5	9	14	−7	16
Derek MacKenzie	75	3	11	14	−9	31
Alex Petrovic	67	2	11	13	−2	98
Connor Brickley	44	4	8	12	−6	19
Micheal Haley	75	3	6	9	−13	212
Frank Vatrano^†	16	5	3	8	6	12
MacKenzie Weegar	60	2	6	8	5	32
Maxim Mamin	26	3	1	4	2	7
Ian McCoshen	38	3	1	4	−10	25
Henrik Borgstrom	4	1	0	1	−1	0
Owen Tippett	7	1	0	1	−6	0
Henrik Haapala	5	0	1	1	0	0
Dryden Hunt	11	0	1	1	−5	2
Chase Balisy	8	0	0	0	−2	0
Curtis Valk	1	0	0	0	0	0

Goaltenders edit

Regular season^[7]
Player	GP	GS	TOI	W	L	OT	GA	GAA	SA	SV%	SO	A	PIM
James Reimer	44	42	2,411:25	22	14	6	120	2.99	1373	.913	4	1	4
Roberto Luongo	35	33	1,965:58	18	11	2	81	2.47	1143	.929	3	2	0
Harri Sateri	9	7	492:36	4	4	0	24	2.92	271	.911	0	0	0
Antti Niemi^†‡	2	0	58:42	0	1	0	5	5.11	39	.872	0	0	0

^†Denotes player spent time with another team before joining the Panthers. Statistics reflect time with the Panthers only.
^‡Denotes player was traded mid-season. Statistics reflect time with the Panthers only.
Bold denotes season record.

Transactions edit

The Panthers have been involved in the following transactions during the 2017–18 season.

Trades edit

Date	Details		Ref
June 21, 2017 (2017-06-21)	To Vegas Golden Knights Reilly Smith	To Florida Panthers 4th-round pick in 2018	^[8]
November 10, 2017 (2017-11-10)	To Dallas Stars Reece Scarlett	To Florida Panthers Ludvig Bystrom	^[9]
December 19, 2017 (2017-12-19)	To Edmonton Oilers Future considerations	To Florida Panthers Gregory Chase	^[10]
February 22, 2018 (2018-02-22)	To Boston Bruins 3rd-round pick in 2018	To Florida Panthers Frank Vatrano	^[11]
June 19, 2018 (2018-06-19)	To San Jose Sharks 2nd-round pick in 2019 4th-round pick in 2018 5th-round pick in 2018	To Florida Panthers Mike Hoffman 7th-round pick in 2018	^[12]

Free agents acquired edit

Date	Player	Former team	Contract terms (in U.S. dollars)	Ref
July 1, 2017 (2017-07-01)	Connor Brickley	Vegas Golden Knights	1-year, $750,000	^[13]
July 1, 2017 (2017-07-01)	Evgenii Dadonov	SKA St. Petersburg	3-year, $12 million	^[14]
July 1, 2017 (2017-07-01)	Micheal Haley	San Jose Sharks	2-year, $1.65 million	^[15]
July 1, 2017 (2017-07-01)	Harri Sateri	Vityaz Podolsk	1-year, $750,000	^[16]
July 1, 2017 (2017-07-01)	Curtis Valk	Utica Comets	1-year, $682,500 entry-level contract	^[13]
July 1, 2017 (2017-07-01)	Radim Vrbata	Arizona Coyotes	1-year, $2.5 million	^[17]
July 2, 2017 (2017-07-02)	Alexandre Grenier	Vancouver Canucks	1-year, $725,000	^[18]
September 22, 2017 (2017-09-22)	Edward Wittchow	Springfield Thunderbirds	1-year, $670,000	^[19]
November 20, 2017 (2017-11-20)	Anthony Greco	Springfield Thunderbirds	1-year, $660,000	^[20] ^{[better source needed]}
March 9, 2017 (2017-03-09)	Patrick Bajkov	Everett Silvertips	3-year, $2.775 million entry-level contract	^[21]
June 1, 2017 (2017-06-01)	Bogdan Kiselevich	CSKA Moscow	1-year, $650,000	^[22]

Free agents lost edit

Date	Player	New team	Contract terms (in U.S. dollars)	Ref
April 27, 2017 (2017-04-27)	Tim Bozon	EHC Kloten	1-year	^[23]
July 1, 2017 (2017-07-01)	Adam Wilcox	Buffalo Sabres	1-year	^[24]
July 1, 2017 (2017-07-01)	Brent Regner	Dallas Stars	1-year	^[25]
July 1, 2017 (2017-07-01)	Kyle Rau	Minnesota Wild	1-year, $700,000	^[26]
July 1, 2017 (2017-07-01)	Paul Thompson	Vegas Golden Knights	1-year, $650,000	^[27]
July 1, 2017 (2017-07-01)	Michael Sgarbossa	Winnipeg Jets	1-year, $650,000	^[28]
July 5, 2017 (2017-07-05)	Brody Sutter	Manitoba Moose	1-year	^[29]
July 7, 2017 (2017-07-07)	Jussi Jokinen	Edmonton Oilers	1-year, $1.1 million	^[30]
August 8, 2017 (2017-08-08)	Colin Stevens	Wheeling Nailers	1-year	^[31]
August 21, 2017 (2017-08-21)	Sam Brittain	San Antonio Rampage	Unknown	^[32]
September 1, 2017 (2017-09-01)	Thomas Vanek	Vancouver Canucks	1-year, $900,000	^[33]
August 29, 2017 (2017-08-29)	Graham Black	University of Calgary	Unknown	^[34]
October 4, 2017 (2017-10-04)	Jaromir Jagr	Calgary Flames	1-year, $1 million	^[35]^[36]
October 18, 2017 (2017-10-18)	Jakub Kindl	HC Plzeň	Unknown	^[37]

Claimed via waivers edit

Player	Previous team	Date	Ref
Antti Niemi	Pittsburgh Penguins	October 24, 2017 (2017-10-24)	^[38]

Lost via waivers edit

Player	New team	Date	Ref
Antti Niemi	Montreal Canadiens	November 14, 2017 (2017-11-14)	^[39]

Lost via retirement edit

Date	Player	Ref

Player signings edit

Date	Player	Contract terms (in U.S. dollars)	Ref
June 30, 2017 (2017-06-30)	Chase Balisy	1-year, $650,000	^[40]
June 30, 2017 (2017-06-30)	Reece Scarlett	1-year, $675,000	^[41]
June 30, 2017 (2017-06-30)	Alex Petrovic	1-year, $1.85 million	^[42]
July 2, 2017 (2017-07-02)	Sebastian Repo	3-year, $2.775 million entry-level contract	^[43]
July 6, 2017 (2017-07-06)	Mark Pysyk	3-year, $8.2 million	^[44]
July 19, 2017 (2017-07-19)	Owen Tippett	3-year, $4.975 million entry-level contract	^[45]
August 3, 2017 (2017-08-03)	MacKenzie Weegar	1-year, $675,000	^[46]
October 7, 2017 (2017-10-07)	Mike Matheson	8-year, $39 million contract extension	^[47]
November 16, 2017 (2017-11-16)	Jonathan Ang	3-year, $2.775 million entry-level contract	^[48]
February 12, 2018 (2018-02-12)	Colton Sceviour	3-year, $3.6 million contract extension	^[49]
March 4, 2018 (2018-03-04)	Riley Stillman	3-year, $2.7 million entry-level contract	^[50]
March 27, 2018 (2018-03-27)	Henrik Borgstrom	3-year, $4.475 million entry-level contract	^[51]
May 31, 2018 (2018-05-31)	Josh Brown	2-year, $1.35 million contract extension	^[52]
May 31, 2018 (2018-05-31)	Ludvig Byström	1-year, $650,000 contract extension	^[52]

Draft picks edit

Below are the Florida Panthers' selections at the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, which was held on June 23 and 24, 2017 at the United Center in Chicago.

Round	#	Player	Pos	Nationality	College/Junior/Club team (League)
1	10	Owen Tippett	RW	Canada	Mississauga Steelheads (OHL)
2	40	Aleksi Heponiemi	C	Finland	Swift Current Broncos (WHL)
3	66¹	Max Gildon	D	United States	U.S. NTDP (USHL)
5	133	Tyler Inamoto	D	United States	U.S. NTDP (USHL)
6	184²	Sebastian Repo	C	Finland	Tappara (Liiga)

Draft notes:^[53]

The Arizona Coyotes' third-round pick went to the Florida Panthers as the result of a trade on August 25, 2016, that sent Dave Bolland and Lawson Crouse to Arizona in exchange for a conditional second-round pick in 2018 and this pick (being conditional at the time of the trade).^[54] The condition – Florida will receive the better of Arizona or Detroit's third-round picks in 2017^[55] – was converted on March 29, 2017, when Detroit clinched a better regular season record than Arizona for the 2016–17 NHL season.
The Anaheim Ducks' sixth-round pick went to the Florida Panthers as the result of a trade on December 4, 2014, that sent Colby Robak to Anaheim in exchange for Jesse Blacker and this pick (being conditional at the time of the trade). The condition — Florida will receive a sixth-round pick in 2017 dependent on how many games Robak played for Anaheim during the 2014–15 NHL season^[56] — the date of conversion is unknown.^[57]

References edit

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