The Florida Panthers have signed forward Grigori Denisenko to a two-year, one-way contract extension, per his agent, Dan Milstein. The contract carries an average annual value of $775K, says NorthStar Bets’ Chris Johnston.
PuckPedia adds they’ve signed UFA defenseman Niko Mikkola to a three-year deal worth $2.5MM per season, and TSN’s Darren Dreger says they’ve nabbed Mike Reilly on a one-year deal worth $1MM. They’ve also announced a one-year, two-way extension for blueliner Lucas Carlsson. Per PuckPedia, they’ve signed forward Will Lockwood to a one-year, two-way deal worth $350k guaranteed with a $775k NHL cap hit and $275k AHL salary.
The team later added some more AHL depth, per PuckPedia, signing forward Alexander True to a one-year two-way deal worth $775K in the NHL, $350K in the minors, and a guaranteed salary of $425K.
With some of Florida’s forwards now on the UFA market, Denisenko is a likely candidate to start 2023-24 with the team – potentially even in a top-nine role if they don’t make any other editions. Florida drafted the Russian winger 15th overall in 2018, but he’s yet to break out with just seven assists in 26 career NHL games up to this point.
Mikkola is the big-money signing here, though, and he’s expected to be a stylistic replacement for Radko Gudas, who departed as a UFA to the Anaheim Ducks today. Even with the Panthers’ defense injuries, though, Mikkola will still likely start the season on the bottom pairing on the left side behind Gustav Forsling and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Reilly is likely destined for a press-box role for most of the season (he played in just 10 NHL games last year), but could find himself in the lineup ahead of players like Dmitry Kulikov and Josh Mahura if Florida desires a more offensively inclined option.
Carlsson, Lockwood, and True are likely candidates for AHL Charlotte.
He has lots of upside, some offensive skill and should get some real playing time this year.
Welp, Panthers have their Great Value Ekblad in Mikkola and their Tesco Brand Montour in Ekman-Larsson.
When healthy, depth chart should look something like…
Forsling – Ekblad
Ekman-Larsson – Montour
Mikkola – Mahura
—
Reilly – Keirsted
While Montour and Ekblad are injured though… WOOF. Even when healthy, Panthers need another Top 4 defender. Gostisbehere would be perfect honestly.
Wasted money. That’s all they’ve done. They’re up against the cap again and they haven’t improved the team. They have depth. The same type of players who got out worked and beaten on by bigger Vegas players. Panthers needed faceoffs and size, and brought in neither.