{"id":558415,"date":"2026-04-23T18:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/558415\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:51:13","slug":"it-will-be-difficult-for-florida-to-keep-vezina-winning-goaltender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/558415\/","title":{"rendered":"It Will Be Difficult for Florida to Keep Vezina Winning Goaltender"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2269587900-e1776965373916.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Sergei Bobrovsky\"   decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Bobrovsky may be on the move this summer <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nhl\/florida-panthers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Florida Panthers<\/a> for the first time in a while had a disappointing season this past year as they missed the postseason. The two-time defending Stanley Cup champs last missed the playoffs in the 2018-2019 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest reason behind the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/carolina-panthers\/\" title=\"Panthers\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"235427\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Panthers<\/a> drop off in form was a rash of injuries that took place from the amount of hockey the team has played the past three seasons, having made the Stanley Cup final every year. They were without captain Alexander Barkov for the entire duration of the season. Many other Florida players missed time, including star forward Matthew Tkachuk as he was out for over half the year.<\/p>\n<p>The Panthers will be looking for a bounce back season next year and return to their usual playoff territory. However, some key members of the team may not feature on next season\u2019s squad with the most notable being two-time Vezina winning goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. The 37-year old Russian goalie\u2019s contract with the club expires this summer as he will be a free agent.<\/p>\n<p>Panthers Retaining Bobrovsky Will Be a Challenge<\/p>\n<p>Resigning Bobrovsky will be difficult for Florida with their tricky salary cap situation, but they will try to make it happen. Insider <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NHLRumourReport\/status\/2047118254712500399?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Elliotte Friedman spoke<\/a> about this on the 32 Thoughts podcast: \u201cI remember last year we didn\u2019t think they\u2019d be able to keep all three [of Marchand, Ekblad, Bennett]; if Florida wants to do something, they\u2019ll find a way; he wants to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/team\/florida-panthers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Via Puck Pedia<\/a>, the Panthers will have approximately $7.9 million in cap room to utilize this summer. Bobrovsky\u2019s current deal pays him $10 million per season, so he\u2019d have to take a significant pay cut to fit in Florida\u2019s books. Considering he is approaching the twilight of his career and the success he has had with this organization, it would be logical to presume Bobrovsky would be willing to take less on his next deal as many of his championship winning teammates have done before him.<\/p>\n<p>The problem Florida faces is it\u2019s not just Bobrovsky they have to worry about bringing back this summer. If they retain Bobrovsky, the deal would likely leave them with little left to make space for the rest of the players they want to resign. Those players include A.J Greer, Tomas Nosek, Mackie Samoskevich, and fellow netminder Danill Tarosov among others. So unless \u201cBob\u201d takes a massive discount, the Panthers will not be able to keep all these guys.<\/p>\n<p>Bobrovsky Would Garner Interest in Free Agency<\/p>\n<p>If Florida does not meet the Bobrovsky camp\u2019s demands, he will generate interest in the open market this offseason from teams looking for a significant upgrade in net.<\/p>\n<p>One of those teams that has been linked to him is the San Jose Sharks. The Daily Faceoff\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NHLRumourReport\/status\/2045253773824508041?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Jeff Marek inquired<\/a> about the possibility on The Sheet: \u201cThe other place I wonder about is San Jose for Sergei Bobrovsky, having the Russian mentor there for Askarov, I\u2019ve kinda been on that one for a while, we\u2019ll see if that gets there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Sharks are just one of many teams that would likely pursue Bobrovsky\u2019s services if he becomes available. While his best days are behind him, Bobrovsky has a wealth of experience to provide. He has amassed 456 wins and 53 shutouts in his 806 game NHL career, including two Stanley Cup wins in the playoffs on his resume.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/justinlynch1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Justin Lynch<\/a> Justin Lynch is a Heavy Sports writer who specializes in NHL coverage. He is also a Chicago Blackhawks contributing writer for FanSided after having previously written for The Sporting News. After spending a year working with Chicago Hockey Radio, he now covers Blackhawks\/NHL content on his own personnel YouTube channel and across various social media platforms. Justin has consumed the sport of hockey his whole life; it is his number one passion. <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/justinlynch1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More about Justin Lynch<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore Heavy on FL Panthers\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bobrovsky may be on the move this summer The Florida Panthers for the first time in a while&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5102],"tags":[62,57,5141,5,4,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-558415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida-panthers","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-panthers","10":"tag-floridapanthers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-panthers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116455531718196976","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558415","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=558415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}