Yes, the Florida Panthers got swept in the second round by their cross-state rivals, but that doesn’t change the fact that their long-term outlook is among the best in the league. As long as they don’t overreact to this gut punch of a result.

Part of the reason the Panthers are viewed as having such a big window for success is that they are bringing basically everyone from this best-in-team-history roster back next season.

Basically.

But there are some issues here. About half the forward group are pending unrestricted free agents, including rental Claude Giroux, but apart from him, none of the others (Noel Acciari, Maxim Mamin, Mason Marchment, and Joe Thornton) played much in the top-six or will cost a lot to replace or re-sign. The same is true of the defence, where there are three pending