‘I can play in the NHL’: How Uvis Balinskis has earned team’s trust in Year 2 with Panthers
In the early stages of training camp back in September, Uvis Balinskis made his proclamation.
The question posed to the 28-year-old Latvian defenseman, who made his NHL debut with the Florida Panthers the season prior and showed glimpses of what he can provide in 26 games: What do you think you were able to show the Panthers last season during your limited playing time?
His response: “I don’t know. Maybe that I can play in the NHL,” Balinskis quipped. “I improved myself a lot during those games.”
That has been evident so far in his second NHL season.
Entering Florida’s home game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, Balinskis has 10 points — one goal and nine assists — through 35 games played. Balinskis has primarily been on Florida’s third defense pairing but is slated to play his third consecutive game on the second pairing with Dmitry Kulikov while Niko Mikkola remains sidelined with an upper-body injury.
“I like that the coaches trust me and put me in there,” Balinskis said. “I’m just trying to do my best there and help the team win.”
And that means doing anything to make an impact.
Case in point: When the salary cap-strapped Panthers were short on forwards early in the season with Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Tomas Nosek all sidelined, Balinskis played five games as a winger on Florida’s fourth line despite not playing the position since he was 14 years old.
How did the move unfold?
“[Panthers coach Paul Maurice] said he needed a guy for the offense,” Balinskis said, “and I’m not going to say no if he needs it.”
Added Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito: “His personality is such that he does whatever you throw at him. He just does what he can do, and he’s happy to contribute in any way.”
Especially considering his path to get to the NHL — one that Balinskis thought might not happen until the Panthers came calling two years ago.
Balinskis was in his third season playing in the Czech Extraliga, the highest-level ice hockey league in the Czech Republic, in the 2022-23 season. It was his seventh season playing at the senior level in Europe, first with Dinamo Riga in the Kontinental Hockey League before moving to the Czech Republic.
But Balinskis really got on the Panthers’ radar during his time playing for the Latvian National Team, which participated in the 2022 Winter Olympics and won the bronze medal at this year’s World Championships. The Panthers signed him to a one-year deal in April 2023. He made enough of an impression in training camp and the preseason to crack Florida’s 23-man roster to begin the season and played early and often that season while Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour rehabbed from offseason surgery.
Once those two returned, Balinskis spent three-and-a-half months with the Charlotte Checkers, Florida’s American Hockey League affiliate, to get steady playing time instead of riding the bench at the NHL level.
“He’s not a young player,” Maurice said. “He’s a pro when he gets here, but the league is completely different than anything he’s experienced. He spent time in the American League for the most part last year learning it.”
Balinskis rejoined the Panthers for the final month of the regular season and was with the team throughout its run to its first-ever Stanley Cup. While he didn’t make an appearance in the playoffs, having the chance to watch what it takes to make a deep postseason run fueled him as he got ready for this season. Florida had a pair of defenseman spots in the lineup up for grabs in camp following the departures of Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
“This year, he’s got to come in and scratch and claw and fight for a job,” Maurice said, “but we believe he’s got it in him to do that.”
So did Balinskis. The game had slowed down for him. He worked on his speed as well as his ability to read the game and put himself in position to make plays on both ends of the ice.
He had an opportunity in front of him. He wasn’t going to waste it.
“It’s been good,” Balinskis said. “I’m feeling comfortable and more confident in my game.”
Now, Balinskis is still far from a complete product. His game is still growing. Maurice acknowledges that.
But the veteran coach also acknowledges that Balinskis’ ability to bounce back and correct mistakes as signs of his maturity and potential for continued improvement.
“He went through his progression,” Maurice said. “Really loved his start, lots of energy, played exceptionally well — and then there was a lull, but that lull also coincided with us coming back from Finland. There’s a whole team [going through it], but because he’s young in terms of an experienced player, there is a concern because there’s a breaking point sometimes with young players. Early in the year, they’ll get to a level, they’ll come out of the gate hot, and then it just wears on, the weight of the season. He came out of that dip, which is really important, over his last four or five games. He’s back, and maybe even better. Speed’s back his intensity. He will take hits to make plays. He’s taken some big ones. He’ll give hits. So he’s starting to trend back up.”
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