Yes, Florida Panthers' 2026 First Round Pick is Top 10 Protected

As the NHL hits pause for 19 days for players to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, the banged up Florida Panthers are nine points out of a playoff spot and seeking to avoid becoming the first defending Stanley Cup champion to miss the postseason the following year.

But that doesn't mean the Panthers are uninsured against a lost season.

Details of last year's acquisition of defenseman Seth Jones had been inaccurately reported elsewhere. The Panthers' first-round pick sent to Chicago is, in fact, Top 10 protected for the upcoming NHL Draft.

According to a league source, the exact language of the transaction is this:

Chicago will receive Florida's 1st Round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, provided, however, in the event: (i) such pick is transferred to Calgary (pursuant to the conditions of an earlier trade) or (ii) such pick is a top 10 pick (following the determination of the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery results), then Florida will instead transfer their own 1st round pick in 2027 NHL Draft to Chicago in lieu of their own 1st round pick in 2026 NHL Draft. 

If neither of the conditions ((i) or (ii)) occur, Chicago shall receive Florida's 1st round pick in 2026 NHL Draft.

In this case, Florida already satisfied the first condition: their 2025 pick was transferred to Calgary from the Matthew Tkachuk trade and Calgary selected Cullen Potter from Arizona State.

That means if the Panthers are determined after the Draft Lottery to select in the Top 10, they will retain their 2026 pick - and could even choose to trade it elsewhere if they so desired.

The Panthers' season has been marred by injury. Coach Paul Maurice recently pointed out that Florida has more man-games lost due to injury in the first 55 games this season than they did the last two seasons combined. This week they completed a game without eight regulars from their Cup-winning lineup, including all four centers absent. The math is fuzzy now. To hit 100 points and pass the pace of current second wild card Boston, the Panthers would need to play .780 hockey down the stretch and earn 39 of a possible 50 points. There is no margin for error, and they're about to receive back a bunch of exhausted skaters who played high-leverage hockey in Milan.

With that, will the Panthers continue to push for the postseason? Or will they make the bold decision to punt on the season, allow injured players to heal, and come back stronger in October?

Perhaps the better question: Did anyone really think that GM William Francis Zito Jr., attorney and Yale alumnus who turned down Harvard, would not cover his team's downside even in a season no one could have saw coming?