Florida signed a handful of serviceable but unspectacular free agents
As you know, this was a rather weak free agency class, but given the potential time that a few contributors could miss along with the players lost in free agency, one of the Buffalo Sabres most heated rivals had to compensate. Enter Evan Rodrigues, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Mike Reilly, Dmitry Kulikov, and Niko Mikkola, all of whom are coming to the eastern side of the Sunshine State to try and keep the Panthers afloat.
You may remember Rodrigues for his time in the Queen City, where he played between 2015-16 and 2018-19. Rodrigues then went to Pittsburgh for three seasons, before he spent a year with the Colorado Avalanche. Last season with the Avs, Rodrigues put up 39 points in 69 contests, showing that he can be at least serviceable on offense.
Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson spent most of his career with the Arizona Coyotes before he jumped to Vancouver for a pair of seasons with the Canucks. Now 32, Ekman-Larsson remains a rather formidable hitter capable of playing Top 4 minutes, though his possession metrics were rather uninspiring last year.
Mike Reilly is another blueliner who saw just 10 regular season games with the Boston Bruins, logging 21 hits and 10 blocks in those contests. Dmitry Kulikov is yet another player Florida signed that is over 30, yet he still showed a tenacious edge with 108 blocks and 96 hits splitting time between a terrible Anaheim Ducks team and the underachieving Pittsburgh Penguins.
And finally, we got Niko Mikkola, a towering blueliner who has already seen time with three different NHL teams, despite being a rather young player. Last season with the St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers, Mikkola logged 151 hits and 108 blocks, adding yet another physical chess piece to the Panthers lineup.