{"id":450466,"date":"2026-02-07T17:37:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T17:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/450466\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T17:37:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T17:37:22","slug":"silver-lining-for-the-florida-panthers-injury-riddled-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/450466\/","title":{"rendered":"Silver Lining For The Florida Panthers Injury-Riddled Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\tSilver Lining For The Florida Panthers Injury-Riddled Season | Inside The Rink<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"skip-link screen-reader-text\" href=\"#content\">Skip to content<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/\" class=\"custom-logo-link\" rel=\"home nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"400\" height=\"90\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1764203590_941_Clean-Logo-1.png\" class=\"custom-logo\" alt=\"Inside The Rink Logo\" decoding=\"async\"  \/><\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/boxscorejunkie.com\/nhl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770485834_451_cropped-Life-Insurance.png .webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/\" rel=\"home nofollow noopener\" itemprop=\"item\" target=\"_blank\">Home<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/category\/nhl\/\" itemprop=\"item\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NHL<\/a>Silver Lining For The Florida Panthers Injury-Riddled Season<\/p>\n<p>          <img width=\"1200\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Untitled-design-7-1.png\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Seth Jones skating with the puck against the Capitals. (AP Photo\/Nick Wass)&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>A season defined by injuries and \u2018what ifs\u2019 for Florida Panthers fans has a new light at the end of the tunnel. The playoffs are no longer the goal; tanking as hard as possible is. It came to light on Friday via X after several tweets from <a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/tag\/frank-seravalli\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"2165\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Frank Seravalli<\/a> that the Cats\u2019 1st round pick for this season, which was traded to Chicago as part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/tag\/seth-jones\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"127\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Seth Jones<\/a> trade, is actually top-10 protected. Seemingly news to everyone, it has since been confirmed by the Chicago side that the pick is protected, and the front office was aware of that. Should the Panthers end up with a top 10 pick, the Blackhawks would get first dibs on the 2027 first-rounder, and the one traded to Boston slides to 2028.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Plenty of questions as to how apparently no one knew about this condition. The most likely answer is that it was an overlooked detail because no one assumed the Panthers would be in the situation they\u2019re currently in. One of the only places that seems to have reported on the protection when the trade happened almost a year ago was Daily Faceoff. They said in their article, \u201cIf Knight is the headliner of this Jones return, an unprotected 2026 first-rounder doesn\u2019t hurt either. The pick is conditional in name only, it will go to the Blackhawks so long as the Cats don\u2019t have a top-ten selection.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, the Panther fans are fully on board with shutting down guys after the Olympic break and tanking to ensure a top 10 pick. Bill Zito continues to prove why he\u2019s one of the best in the business. He made sure all his bases were covered on the off chance that a season like this occurred within the Cup Window. Even when everything goes wrong, Bill Zito makes the right moves for the team. It\u2019s been a season of injury hell, but now there\u2019s something for fans to look forward to in the offseason for the Florida Panthers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\tDiscover more from Inside The Rink<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"margin-top:10px;margin-bottom:10px;font-size:15px\">Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/author\/kdelisi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3349659879a66ce859de4d7da59eda3ab6859831f5669784286c6adc2ce96998.png\"  class=\"avatar avatar-75 photo\" height=\"75\" width=\"75\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>              <a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/boston-bruin-forward-to-miss-olympics\/\" rel=\"bookmark nofollow noopener\" class=\"featured-image\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n          <img width=\"300\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/download-25-e1738501814653-300x150.webp.webp\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-post-image\" alt=\"David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha of the Boston Bruins\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>        <\/a>            <\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/boston-bruin-forward-to-miss-olympics\/\" rel=\"bookmark nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boston Bruin Forward to Miss Olympics<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Boston Bruins forward Pavel Zacha has been ruled out for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 because of an upper-body injury. Team Czechia will replace Zacha with forward Filip Chlapik. Chlapik is a 28-year-old captain on HC Sparta Praha and has scored 19 goals with 25 assists in 45 games this season. Zacha has [\u2026]<\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/boston-bruin-forward-to-miss-olympics\/\" rel=\"bookmark nofollow noopener\" title=\"\" class=\"readmore\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n          Read More        <\/a><\/p>\n<p>              <a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/devils-fall-to-islanders-in-final-contest-before-the-olympic-break\/\" rel=\"bookmark nofollow noopener\" class=\"featured-image\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n          <img width=\"300\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770403023_134_NJDvNYI26-300x150.png\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-post-image\" alt=\"Timo Meier looks for a rebound in front of Ilya Sorokin in the second period of Thursday's Devils versus Islanders game.\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>        <\/a>            <\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/devils-fall-to-islanders-in-final-contest-before-the-olympic-break\/\" rel=\"bookmark nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Devils Fall to Islanders in Final Contest Before the Olympic Break<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The New Jersey Devils lost 3-1 to the New York Islanders on Thursday night at the Prudential Center. The Devils outplayed New York but, as has been the story of the season, the goal scoring did not come through. With the loss, the Devils fell to 28-27-2 and are on a three-game losing streak heading [\u2026]<\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/devils-fall-to-islanders-in-final-contest-before-the-olympic-break\/\" rel=\"bookmark nofollow noopener\" title=\"\" class=\"readmore\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n          Read More        <\/a><\/p>\n<p>              <a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/could-marc-andre-fleury-return-this-season\/\" rel=\"bookmark nofollow noopener\" class=\"featured-image\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n          <img width=\"300\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Untitled-design-24-300x150.png\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>        <\/a>            <\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/could-marc-andre-fleury-return-this-season\/\" rel=\"bookmark nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Could Marc-Andre Fleury Return This Season?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The NHL season has hit the Olympic break, and rumors are coming up all over the place. One rumor that has popped up is the potential for a former Vezina Trophy-winning goalie to return, as Marc-Andre Fleury has been rumored to potentially make a return this season. He would also play for a former team, [\u2026]<\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/could-marc-andre-fleury-return-this-season\/\" rel=\"bookmark nofollow noopener\" title=\"\" class=\"readmore\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n          Read More        <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\u00a9 2021-2025 Inside The Rink\u00ae<\/p>\n<p>This website has no affiliation to any of the hockey leagues it reports on. All materials not owned by Inside The Rink LLC are used for editorial purposes only. <a href=\"https:\/\/insidetherink.com\/privacy-policy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Policy<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Silver Lining For The Florida Panthers Injury-Riddled Season | Inside The Rink Skip to content HomeNHLSilver Lining For&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[9107,62,57,5141,5,4,63,259,488],"class_list":{"0":"post-450466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida-panthers","8":"tag-bill-zito","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-panthers","11":"tag-floridapanthers","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-panthers","15":"tag-seth-jones","16":"tag-spencer-knight"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116030567295694926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}