SUNRISE, Fla. — Reminders of this run to the Stanley Cup Final will be everywhere when next season starts for the Florida Panthers. There will be a new banner to celebrate the Eastern Conference championship. There will inevitably be a highlight video recapping the best moments of this postseason.

There will also be scars. Missed games. And a lot of rehabbing.

The Panthers’ goal for next season is simple and obvious — get back to the Cup final and win it all. But Coach Paul Maurice is sounding a cautionary alarm, already aware that the physical toll this postseason took on some players will carry over into next season.

“We’re going to have a hell of a time making the playoffs next year,” Maurice said. “That’s a fact.”

The math says he’s not wrong. Florida got into the playoffs this year by the slimmest of margins, just one point. There was no room for error, and he already knows next season’s opening-night lineup won’t be the best one Florida can have on the ice.

There were at least four Panthers who finished the season with broken bones. Some players will need a few weeks to heal. Others will need as many as six months, Maurice said.

Surgeries will start soon, and one of the few downsides of making it to the Cup final is this — it’s a really short offseason. Training camp starts in about three months. Some Panthers won’t be ready by then.

“We had so many injuries,” goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky said. “The guys played through the broken bones. They found a way. We competed. … Yes, we didn’t go all the way, but we have done an unbelievable job.”

Matthew Tkachuk, an MVP finalist this season, played part of the final — and scored a goal, even — with a fractured sternum, courtesy of a hit in Game 3 against Vegas. He eventually was hurting so much that teammates had to help him get his pads on, get his jersey over his head, and tie his skates. He couldn’t play in Game 5 of the Cup final, when Vegas rolled past Florida to win its first title and eliminate the Panthers.

Aaron Ekblad broke a foot in the first round against Boston, plus twice went through shoulder dislocations, needed to pass a concussion test and tore an oblique muscle; he missed one game. Radko Gudas should have missed six weeks with a high ankle sprain; he missed one period. Sam Bennett was banged-up and kept playing.

“There’s no stopping now. There’s no stopping here,” Ekblad said after Vegas’ 9-3 win to finish off the series. “Bump in the road and it’s going to sting. It stings now. But we’ll find a way to come back next year and be stronger because of it. How could you not, going through what we went through this year?”

PENGUINS: The Pittsburgh Penguins hired two-time NHL All-Star Jason Spezza as assistant general manager.

President of hockey operations Kyle Dubas announced the move. Spezza spent the 2022-23 season working as a special assistant to Dubas when Dubas served as the general manager in Toronto.

BLUES: The St. Louis Blues hired Mike Babcock’s son, Michael, as a skills coach.

Babcock and former defenseman Mike Weber are joining Craig Berube’s staff, GM Doug Armstrong announced. Berube oversaw the search for replacements for Craig MacTavish and Mike Van Ryn, assistants who were fired after St. Louis missed the playoffs.

Babcock, 28, finished this past NHL season with the Ottawa Senators, helping the coaching staff with developing game plans, prescouting and on-ice skill development. Before that, he spent two years working for his father as an assistant for the men’s hockey team at the University of Saskatchewan.

HENRI RICHARD’S family says the late Hockey Hall of Famer has been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease linked to concussions.

“I hope my father’s brain donation and diagnosis will lead to more prevention efforts, research, and eventually a CTE treatment,” Denis Richard, Henri’s son, said. “I want people to understand this is a disease that impacts athletes far beyond football.”

Richard, who died in 2020 at the age of 84, was diagnosed with CTE by Dr. Stephen Saikali at Université Laval in Québec City. The disease, which can only be diagnosed posthumously, can cause memory loss, depression and violent mood swings in athletes, combat veterans and others who sustain repeated head trauma.

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