Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov was 12th on The Athletic’s 25 must-watch people for the 2024-25 NHL season ($) with Chris Johnston having this to say about the captain:
Count this as a problem every player in the league would love to have: Barkov is coming off an impossibly short summer after becoming the first Finnish-born player ever to lead his team to the Stanley Cup. The challenge facing the Florida Panthers captain is to help ensure his team experiences no lag or hangover, which will be tough after seeing Brandon Montour, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and others exit via free agency, and because many of the holdovers are actually returning from consecutive 100-plus-game runs to the championship series.
Barkov was skating on a line with Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe on the the first day of training camp.
Panthers prospect Kirill Gerasimyuk made 37 saves as SKA Neva St. Petersburg held off Neftyanik Almetyevsk for a 5-4 win in action from Russia’s VHL. Gerasimyuk, a fifth-round pick in 2021, is now 4-0 with a 2.40 GAA and .928 save percentage.
The Detroit Red Wings restricted free agent defenseman Moritz Seider signed a seven-year contract with an AAV of $8.55 million. Seider appeared in all 82 games and put up nine goals and 42 points last season.
Former Panthers prospect Cole Schwindt signed a one-year, two-way deal worth $800K at the NHL level with the Calgary Flames. Schwindt, who was part of the trade that brought Matthew Tkachuk to South Florida, spent most of last season with the Calgary Wranglers, where he produced 14 goals and an AHL career-high 22 assists.
The Flames also re-signed defenseman Ilya Soloyov to a a 2 year, $1.55 million contract extension. Soloyov scored five goals and 15 points in 51 games with the Wranglers and collected three assists in ten NHL games with Calgary in 2023-24.
Restricted free agent forward Philip Tomasino re-upped with the Nashville Predators, inking a one-year deal worth $825K. Tomasino scored seven goals and added 13 assists in 41 games with the Predators last season.
The Los Angeles Kings re-signed restricted free agent forward Arthur Kaliyev to a one-year contract worth $825K. Kaliyev produced seven goals and 15 points in 51 games last season.