The Florida Panthers’ 2025-26 preseason campaign has been a mixed bag of results, offering the first glimpse of the team since its second consecutive Stanley Cup victory. The schedule featured a series of matchups against familiar foes, including a doubleheader against the Nashville Predators and a three-game slate to close out the exhibition games against rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Panthers’ preseason record stood at two wins and three losses as of September 30, having suffered two losses to Nashville and one to Tampa Bay while securing wins against Carolina. This period of evaluation and adjustment took a significant turn, as the team’s coaching staff signaled that a pivotal change in strategy was imminent.

As reported by Jameson Olive on X: “Maurice said there will be a ‘large’ reassignment of players today and tomorrow. Panthers expected to go close to their full lineup for the final two preseason games.”

Paul Maurice’s typical philosophy, as he has often stated, is to build a relationship with his players based on honesty and to carefully manage their workload, often ending practices as soon as he feels his team has reached its threshold of productive work. This move to streamline the roster and deploy the primary lineup suggests a deliberate tuning of the team’s engine ahead of the regular season, moving from evaluation mode to performance mode.

Even his players have expressed immense respect for this quality, with forward Sam Bennett noting, “I don’t think he’s changed since winning. He’s the same. He can be hard on us. He’s hard on us when he needs to be, and then he’s relaxed with us when he knows that we need to, so I think he really does have a good feel for what our team needs. We all have the utmost respect for him.”

So, by changing the tune after preseason losses, Maurice is simply doing what he does best—reading his team and telling them the truth about what it will take to win, this time through actions as much as words. However, when the coach faced problems with not having either Matthew Tkachuk or captain Aleksander Barkov for the upcoming season opener, he was quite unfazed about it.

Paul Maurice’s confidence in the Florida Panthers is on another level

“Beyond our control. So there’s no concern,” Paul Maurice said when asked how he felt about captain Aleksander Barkov’s injury. The Florida Panthers’ captain had surgery on September 26 to fix injuries to his right ACL and MCL. So, it looks like he’s going to be out for about seven to nine months, which probably means he’ll miss the whole 2025-26 NHL season.

This is a tough challenge for the team, but their coach isn’t worried at all. He even said, “We have to learn to win hockey games without good players. But if that’s the adversity or the test that we face this year, then that’s what we’re gonna do. I mean, I’m not a doctor. So I don’t. Whatever the report is won’t affect how we handle that next day. If he’s not in the lineup on opening night, or if he misses an exhibition game, or if he’s out long-term, it’s just not gonna affect that day. We gotta win the hockey game. We got a prep for it. That’s all.”

Absolutely, Barkov is the franchise’s all-time points leader and a real force on both ends of the ice, especially when it comes to defense. Tkachuk has been a big part of the team’s offense and definitely adds that intimidating vibe on the ice. But Maurice really believes that the Panthers have got that depth in their squad.

The team’s got some great scorers in Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe, and keeping the veterans like Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett in the offseason really boosts the Panthers’ lineup for these challenging moments. We’ll just have to wait and see how they perform in the season opener.