Right now, yes, because they aren't a winning team. A common misconception among NHL fans is that "non traditional markets" are outright failures, but that's not actually true. Not at face value at least. In the case of the Panthers, the issue has been years and years of mediocrity. Their attendance was actually quite substantial when they were still icing a competitive playoff team in the 90's with Bure, Mellanby, Beezer, etc. on the roster.
I don't care what market you are in outside of Canada, New York, Philly or Boston — if you put a losing product on the ice for years and years and years (the Cats missed the playoffs for ten straight years, and have exactly two playoff berths since 1999-00), fans will stop coming.
Luckily for them, there's likely enough coming through the pipeline down the line to change things for the better. Kids like Barkov, Bjugstad, Markström, Huberdeau and Gudbranson are great building blocks. What they need, similar to the Islanders, is an incentive to get the right free agent or two to sign to put them over the hump.
