Familiar faces highlight Florida Panthers’ moves on first day of free agency
It was a relatively quiet first day of NHL free agency for the Florida Panthers.
Well, at least in comparison to what they did before the market officially opened at noon Wednesday.
After swinging four trades over the past week and a half to secure their goaltending tandem and fortify their forward depth, Florida didn’t really have much left to accomplish to assemble its roster.
And yet Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito still managed to make some moves that will benefit the Panthers both in the present and the future — all of which included familiar faces.
The moves included a pair of internal contract extensions, with forward Eetu Luostarinen getting an eight-year deal and forward Sandis Vilmanis signing a two-year deal.
They also included four more reunions. On the blue line, Florida signed defenseman Radko Gudas to a six-year deal, Alexander Petrovic to a two-year deal and Donovan Sebrango to a one-year deal. And the Panthers also buffed up their fourth-line center depth by signing veteran Lars Eller to a one-year deal — the only player of the bunch without a previous tie to the Panthers — and brining back Cole Schwindt after not giving him a qualifying offer as a restricted free agent earlier in the week.
All of this came after Florida’s four trades for star forward Brady Tkachuk, starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom, backup goaltender Akira Schmid and fourth-line forward Garnet Hathaway to fortify what on paper was already a stout roster.
Familiar forwards
Luostarinen’s new eight-year deal extension that starts in the 2027-28 season and runs through the 2034-35 season. It will carry an average annual value of $5 million.
Wednesday was the first day Luostarinen was eligible for the deal, as the NHL only allows players to sign extensions when they are in the final year with their current team. Wednesday was the official start of the 2026-27 league year. He’s finishing up a three-year deal that has an annual cap hit of $3 million.
During his time with Florida, Luostarinen has formed one of the top defensive forward tandems with Anton Lundell, with them forming two-thirds of Florida’s third forward line for the better part of the past four seasons. He’s one of the Panthers’ primary forwards on the penalty kill while continuing to find his offensive touch. He has 161 points (61 goals, 100 assists) but his value goes beyond the scoresheet. He also has 34 points over 73 Stanley Cup playoff games, including 19 (five goals, 14 assists) during Florida’s run to its second championship in 2025.
As for Vilmanis, the 22-year-old talented forward prospect impressed last season during his first taste of NHL action and with Latvia during the 2026 Winter Olympics. Vilmanis played in 19 games with the Panthers last season, logging three goals and two assists but showing that he could potentially play as a middle-six forward down the road. Over the past two seasons with the Charlotte Checkers, the Panthers’ American Hockey League affiliate, Vilmanis scored 26 goals and put up 65 total points.
His deal, like Luostarinen, goes into effect in the 2027-28 season. Vilmanis is entering the final year of his entry level contract that is paying him $930,000 this season.
In a low-end move, Florida re-signed Schwindt to a two-year deal to beef up the bottom of their depth chart at center.
Schwindt played 29 games for Florida last season, serving mostly as the team’s fourth-line center. He logged seven points (a career high five goals plus two assists) but missed significant time with a pair of injuries — first a broken arm sustained in November and then a lower-body injury suffered in late February.
Eller, meanwhile, gives Florida another veteran presence down the depth chart. He is entering his 18th NHL season and has 1,184 games of experience with 439 career points (193 goals, 246 assists) to his name. He won the Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals in 2018.
As the roster is currently constructed, Schwindt and Eller are the early frontrunners to be Florida’s fourth-line center. Some combination of Hathaway, Vilmanis, Cole Reinhardt and Jonah Gadjovich would be on the wings.
Reunions on defense
Gudas to a six-year deal that carries a $1.5 million cap hit. That puts the 14-year NHL veteran under contract through his age-42 season.
Gudas was with the Panthers from 2020-2023, logging 44 points (seven goals, 37 assists) through 203 regular-season games. While he wasn’t with the Panthers for either of their two Stanley Cups, Gudas is a player Panthers coach Paul Maurice has praised as having helped establish the team’s culture.
Petrovic, meanwhile, is signed through the 2028-29 season after inking his two-year deal. He was a second-round pick by the Panthers in 2010 and played 254 of his 323 career NHL games with Florida. After a four-season hiatus from the NHL, he returned in 2023 and played the past three seasons with the Dallas Stars.
The deals give Florida a core of eight defensemen heading into the season: Aaron Ekblad, Gustav Forsling, Seth Jones, Niko Mikkola, Dmitry Kulikov, Uvis Balinskis, Gudas and Petrovic.
Moving on from Sergei Bobrovsky
While the big news for the Panthers centers on their additions, there is also one major departure that came through all of this in goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
After seven years with Florida, including backstopping them to back-to-back Stanley Cups, Bobrovsky is now heading north on a three-year deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs that will carry an annual cap hit of $7 million.
After being unable to work things out with Bobrovsky, the Panthers pivoted to acquiring Markstrom and Schmid to form their goaltending tandem.
Markstrom, acquired Tuesday, is also like everyone Florida picked up Wednesday in that he, too, is a former Panther. He was their second-round pick in 2008, but only played 43 games across four seasons with the Panthers before being dealt to the Vancouver Canucks (in the deal that brought Roberto Luongo back to the Panthers). He has also played for the Calgary Flames and most recently the New Jersey Devils over his 16-year career before rejoining the Panthers.
This story was originally published July 1, 2026 at 4:00 PM.
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