Guess this is as good a place as any to put this.
There's been positives from this season and they should be mentioned:
1) Barkov, while not playing like MacKinnon, proved nonetheless to be the real deal: a solid centerman with scoring ability.
2) Tallon managed to steal castoffs from Chicago's prospect pool that have proven to be NHL caliber talent. Olsen has been much better than you'd expect from a guy that couldn't make his previous team's roster, and Hayes also puts up enough points to warrant his position. Deadline pickup Pirri seems poised to be a top-6 scoring forward and has contributed quite a few goals in his short time as a Panther.
3) Tallon's shoestring budget pickups prior to this season who we all yawned at also seem to be brilliant acquisitions. Who saw Winchester as a 17-point player on this offensively challenged team, much less Boyes as a 32-point scoring forward who is tied for 2nd on the team and first in goals, the only player on this team that could hit 20 this season?
4) Huberdeau, despite a sophomore slump this year, is only 7 points off the team lead and, if he comes back from injury, will likely hit 30 points. He's "slumped" all the way to 6th on this team, but isn't far back of 1st. We're all disappointed he didn't take a step forward and lead the team this season, but for a normal event in player development in this league (a 2nd year downturn), he still was among the best on the team.
5) Scottie Upshall's resurgence has been a pleasant surprise. Anyone else pick him to be leading the team in points?
6) Despite slow starts, both Brian Campbell (2nd) and Tom Gilbert (5th) are among the team leaders in points and +/-. Exactly where you expect Campbell to be, and much better than we'd expect of Gilbert.
7) Prospects are starting to pan out. Trochek has looked good and has 2 goals in 7 games, all coming in the 4 games since he was called up from the minors. Quinton Howden, who looked like he had no offensive touch in previous callups, has scored 3 goals and 4 points in 4 games. Defenseman Alex Petrovic is +3 in 7 games on a team that has no playoff prospects and is just finishing out the season. Nick Bjugstad has been a stud all season and is proving to be a fairly consistent scorer at the NHL level, something the Panthers almost always have a hard time finding.
The Panthers have a new, wealthy owner going into the offseason that has allegedly green-lighted spending to the cap. If Tallon can do with the top end of the free agency pool what he did with the low end last season, and if he can convince Jovo to retire, the team could make a huge leap forward next year.
So...well, there's obviously reasons to watch this team's coast to the season's end, and still reason to hope for a much MUCH better result next year.