Panthers Sign Josh Davies To Entry-Level Contract
The Panthers have agreed to terms with 2022 sixth-round pick Josh Davies on a three-year, entry-level contract, per a team release. Davies’ contract will slide to the 2024-25 season given he plays less than ten NHL games this season, a likely scenario. After signing the deal, the Panthers immediately returned Davies to the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks, according to CapFriendly. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
Davies, 19, can play left-wing and center and was selected from the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos two years ago. He was a consensus mid-to-late-round pick coming into the draft, as his offensive production was mediocre (36 points in 64 games), but his physicality was intriguing. Despite his 5-foot-9, 196-pound frame, Davies is a tenacious checker and is not afraid to fight, as evidenced by his 100+ penalty minutes in the last two WHL seasons.
This season, however, Davies’ offense has exploded in his last season in junior hockey. An offseason trade to Portland has breathed life into his game, and he currently sits fourth on the Winterhawks in scoring with 19 goals and 31 points in 22 games. Described as a “diverse shooter” by Elite Prospects, he’s growing into an intriguing all-around talent who may have an NHL future ahead of him.
Given the delay in his offensive breakout, though, Davies’ ceiling is likely as a bottom-six energy winger with some scoring upside. Still, he’s one of the brighter spots in a Panthers’ prospect pool that’s been decimated over the past few years as the team has moved into a championship-contending window, especially among forwards – outside of 2021 first-round pick Mackie Samoskevich, who has ten points in 16 games with AHL Charlotte in his first full professional season.
Atlantic Notes: Gostisbehere, Robertson, Davies
The Red Wings added defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere early in free agency to help replace some of the production they lost when they moved Filip Hronek to Vancouver last season. Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News notes that the blueliner didn’t have a ton of interest on the open market despite recording 92 points in the last two seasons which resulted in him picking the team that he thought gave him the best chance of securing a multi-year agreement next summer, either with Detroit (who gave him a $4.125MM deal) or elsewhere. That approach worked for Olli Maatta who signed a one-year deal last summer and then inked a two-year extension back in February and it’s one that the 30-year-old Gostisbehere will be looking to follow.
More from the Atlantic:
- Toronto winger Nick Robertson told TSN’s Mark Masters (video link) that he has fully recovered from his season-ending shoulder surgery in January and will be ready to participate in training camp next month. It has been a rough go for the 21-year-old who has battled injury trouble in each of the last three seasons. He played in just 17 games last season between the NHL and AHL with 15 of those coming with the Maple Leafs where he had a respectable five points. This is the final year of Robertson’s entry-level deal and with cap space expected to be limited, his cap hit of less than $800K will certainly help his chances of seeing NHL action in 2023-24.
- Panthers prospect Josh Davies is on the move in junior as WHL Portland announced that they’ve acquired the forward from Swift Current. The 19-year-old was a sixth-round pick by Florida in 2022 (186th overall) after a 36-point, 119-PIM season. However, Davies wasn’t able to build on those numbers in 2022-23, recording 20 goals and 14 assists along with 131 penalty minutes. He’ll be hoping that a fresh start could help him find another gear offensively to try to land an entry-level deal from Florida by the June 1st deadline.