'Every defenseman who comes in here gets better' for Panthers

EDMONTON -- Nate Schmidt saw how some NHL defensemen were finding their game again with the Florida Panthers and coach Paul Maurice. Since signing a one-year contract with them on July 3, the 33-year-old defenseman has experienced that firsthand.

“The best way I can describe it is he frees you up to play the style of game you were meant to play,” said Schmidt, who also played for Maurice with the Winnipeg Jets in 2021-22. “He doesn’t ask anyone to skate end to end, he doesn’t ask anyone to do anything more than what they can or should be doing. That just takes a lot of pressure off guys, and he understands that this is the way you want to look.”

Centuries ago, Juan Ponce de Leon supposedly searched for the Fountain of Youth in modern-day Florida. For Schmidt and other defensemen, including Gustav Forsling, 28, and Dmitry Kulikov, 34, South Florida has definitely been the place to revitalize their games. Before Schmidt's arrival, Forsling and Kulikov proved to be big keys for the Panthers when they won the first Stanley Cup in their history last year.

They’re trying to do it again this year, once again facing the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final. Following a 5-4 double-overtime win in Game 2 on Friday, the best-of-7 series is tied 1-1 with Game 3 at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Monday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

Forsling was claimed off waivers from the Carolina Hurricanes on Jan. 9, 2021. He signed an eight-year contract with the Panthers on March 7, 2024, and plays on the top defense pair with Aaron Ekblad. Schmidt signed with Florida two days after the Winnipeg Jets bought out the final season of a six-year, $35.7 million contract ($5.95 million average annual value) he signed with the Vegas Golden Knights on Oct. 25, 2018. He’s on the third pair with Kulikov, the No. 14 pick by the Panthers in the 2009 NHL Draft who played for seven different NHL teams before returning to Florida in 2023-24.

Forsling had 31 points (11 goals, 20 assists) in 80 games during the regular season, second among Florida defensemen behind Ekblad (33 points; three goals, 30 assists in 56 games) and four points (one goal, three assists) in 18 playoff games. Schmidt had 19 points (five goals, 14 assists) in 80 regular-season games and has nine points (three goals, six assists) in 18 playoff games.

Kulikov had 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in 70 regular-season games and has four points (one goal, three assists) in 18 playoff games. His clear of the puck near goalie Sergei Bobrovsky led to forward Sam Reinhart’s series- and Cup-clinching goal with 4:49 to play in the Panthers' 2-1 win in Game 7 against the Oilers last year.

Maurice gets some credit for helping defensemen find their game again, but so does the cohesiveness of Florida'a locker room, and so does Sylvain Lefebvre, Maurice’s assistant in Florida since 2022. General manager Bill Zito said Lefebvre is “a wonderful teacher, a wonderful person who’s extracted the most out of everyone.

“I don’t know, every defenseman who comes in here gets better," Zito said. "They improve. Even the veterans improve. Looking back at (former Panthers defenseman Radko) Gudas, who was an older player. He improved. 'Sly'’s expertise, his professionalism, who he is as a person goes in tandem with that (locker) room: It’s so special that they just pull the good qualities out of you. There’s no better way for me to try and explain it than that.”

Because Maurice never played in the NHL, he wanted coaches around him who had. Lefebvre had 184 points (30 goals, 154 assists) in 945 career games with the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Quebec Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche and New York Rangers from 1989-2003, and won the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche in 1996.

“The main structure is the easy part, where your stick goes, when to press but with all the small things, experience matters, and he has that and he’s spent time coaching,” Maurice said of Lefebvre, who was an assistant coach with Colorado from 2009-12 before he was a coach and assistant with various American Hockey League teams from 2012-21.

Maurice said Lefebvre’s personality also puts defensemen at ease.

“He’s very detailed, very patient, a great teacher and he has an easy personality about him," Maurice said. "Doesn’t mean he’s soft, he just has an easy connection. He can talk to them like a colleague, and they respect that.

“We have some now-veteran players on the blue line that don’t need a lot of motivation. They’re very self-driven, so it’s not on the coach to get them to work harder. They just have a mutual respect. He won a Cup as a player and he understands what it’s like to play for two months into a playoff grind for a defenseman, what’s reasonable, what’s not. I don’t really spend much time thinking about that end of the bench. He’s got it figured out. That for me is the tell. I just leave him. Just don’t mess anything up.”

Seth Jones, who the Panthers acquired in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks on March 1, said Lefebvre conducts video sessions with the defensemen “pretty much every day."

Jones said: “He’s brought back just the little details that I think over the past three years have just somehow gotten lost in the past situation, just little things such as boxing out in the D-zone, being aggressive at the blue line, stick position, stick on puck,” he said. “He’s a great teacher of the game. I’m very thankful to have had him now for the past two months.”

Florida’s defense isn’t full of home-grown players outside of Ekblad, who they selected with the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NHL Draft and has been with them ever since. They’ve found their defensive pieces elsewhere, and they’ve all fit in well.

“For sure, our system is very aggressive," Forsling said. "You need to be able to skate and I think all those guys can skate really well. I think everyone’s on the same page and it’s very easy to jump into our team and our lineup.”

NHL.com senior writer Tom Gulitti contributed to this report