Welcome to all as we embark on another wild and wooly summer of free agent signings. Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito has some openings to fill and doesn’t have a much cap space (currently $1.275 million) to work with, so he will need to continue his amazing run of wizardry to build the depth needed to give the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions a good shot at a three-peat in the upcoming 2025-26 season.
What do the Cats have left to do? Well, not too much. After re-signing Aaron Ekblad (8 years, $48.8 million) and agreeing to terms with Brad Marchand (6 years, $31.5 million) yesterday, the Panthers will need to add another NHL-quality defenseman to offset the loss of Nate Schmidt. Tomas Nosek is back as the fourth line center, so all that’s needed up front is a spare forward. Recent trade acquisition, Daniil Tarasov is now the backup keeper behind Sergei Bobrovsky, so that means saying bye bye to short-termer Vitek Vanecek. Tarasov was inked to one-year, $1.05 million deal this morning. Restricted free agent Mackie Samoskevich also needs a new deal after producing 15 goals and 31 points in 72 games last season. Samoskevich received a qualifying before yesterday’s deadline.
If you’ve been with us for any of our past “Free Agent Frenzy” threads you’ll be familiar with the surroundings: post your own thoughts, reactions, any rumors that catch your eye (please source them), favorite breakfast or lunch spot, streaming show recs, what have you. Whether it’s about the NHL in general or the Panthers in particular, feel free to share it.
The free agent “fireworks” (most of the potentially big names are off the board) begin at 12 p.m. ET, so keep your peepers glued to the interweb so you don’t miss anything.
– Florida’s salary/roster situation courtesy of PuckPedia
– The Panthers’ current NHL level unrestricted free agents:
- Tomas Nosek (Re-signed – one year, $775K)
- RFA Daniil Tarasov (Re-signed – one year, $1.05 million)
- Nico Sturm (signed with Minnesota)
- Nate Schmidt (signed with Utah)
- Vitek Vanecek (signed with Utah)
– The Panthers current AHL level unrestricted free agents
- Jaycob Megna (signed with Vegas)
- Zac Dalpe
- Jesse Puljujärvi (signed with Geneve-Servette HC)
- Rasmus Asplund (signed with HC Davos)
- William Lockwood
- Matt Kiersted (signed with Minnesota)
- Kaapo Kähkönen (signed with Montreal)
- Evan Cormier
New Panthers
- Jeff Petry
- Jack Studnicka
- Brandon Bussi
- Nolan Foote
Usual Twitter Suspects:
- Elliotte Friedman (Sportsnet)
- Pierre LeBrun (TSN)
- Frank Seravelli (DailyFaceoff)
- Jameson Olive (Florida Panthers)
- David Dwork (The Hockey News)
- Panthers Official