Meet The New Guys: A Brief Introduction to the Florida Panthers' 2024 Free Agent Signings
The Panthers were busy in free agency only a week after winning the franchise's first Stanley Cup, signing several players in the hopes of a repeat.
With the Panthers starting their preseason games yesterday and my recent return to writing being announced as well, now is a good time to do a brief overview of the players that the 2024 Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers (it still feels surreal to write that by the way) brought into the fold in their effort to defend their title and what they will be bringing to the table this season. In a similar vein to previous off-seasons, most of the team’s additions were small value buys rather than the big-game hunting so often seen in the long hockey off-season. With that being said, some of these players will have crucial roles to play in the team’s title defense so it is still important to go over who they are and what they’ll bring to the table in the 2024-25 season.
FORWARDS
A.J. Greer (2 years, $850K per year contract)
The only free agent signing who got more than one year on his contract, the big-bodied Greer, who stands at 6’3” and weighs about 210 pounds, is a physical fourth line forward whose strength and nastiness makes him a real heel for opposing teams. Greer lacks the offensive skill to be anything more than a fourth liner, but should fit in well with the Panthers’ style of play and fill a hole on the fourth line left by the entirety of the unit departing in free agency. His combination of skating with his size and physicality is a bit of a combination between the best traits Steven Lorentz and Ryan Lomberg, meaning that the 27-year-old Greer replaces two departed depth forwards for the price of one.
Tomas Nosek (1 year, $775K contract)
Veteran Czech forward Tomas Nosek fills the hole left by the departure of Kevin Stenlund in free agency. The 32-year-old has a career faceoff win percentage of 54.4% and has never had a season where he has lost less than half of his faceoffs. Nosek also has played plenty of penalty kill minutes for the teams that he’s played for throughout his career including Detroit, Vegas, and Boston. Nosek also has 54 games of playoff experience, showing that the veteran shutdown defensive center has played a lot in high-pressure situations, which will be critical for the Panthers in their attempts at another deep playoff run. However, Nosek has been injury-prone the past few seasons, playing only 66 games in 2022-23 and only 36 in 2023-24 thanks to chronic issues with his foot. He will need to stay healthy in order for the Panthers to do well, especially since Nosek is the only truly capable fourth line center that the team brought in in free agency.
Jesper Boqvist (1 year, $775K contract)
There’s always one forward each summer that the Panthers sign that has some tantalizing upside that makes him look less like the typical fourth-line grinder and more like a Moneyball type of buy. This year, that forward is Jesper Boqvist; the 25-year-old Swede looked like a solid depth forward for the New Jersey Devils in 2022-23 and looked decent in 47 games played this past season with the Boston Bruins. Boqvist isn’t the strongest forward and can sometimes get knocked off the puck too easily, but he does have the IQ and playmaking instincts, as well as a sneaky shot, that tend to bode well for players in the NHL once they pick up the strength to handle the competition. If Boqvist plays on the fourth line, he can provide some offensive punch that the Nosek and Greer combination doesn’t really have. If Boqvist plays on the 3rd line with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen, then there’s a good chance that the Panthers will have an all-European depth scoring line that will be stable on both ends of the ice. Boqvist can play up the lineup if needed or on the fourth line if there’s no spot open to him, so this is another example of a classic low-risk, high-reward buy by Florida.
Mackenzie Entwistle (1 year, $775K Two-Way contract)
Mackenzie Entwistle is going from one of 2023-24’s worst teams to 2023-24’s very best team. Entwistle spent last season, as well as three previous ones, on the Chicago Blackhawks. Entwistle mostly played a fourth line role in the Windy City and has the size of a power forward but not necessarily the offensive upside to move outside of the bottom six. Entwistle can be tricky in the offensive zone and may be able to add a little bit of scoring punch to the fourth line should he crack the lineup. Entwistle also is a versatile player as he can play both on the wing and at center. Entwistle is the most likely candidate to be the fourth line center should Nosek go down with an injury, but it is worth mentioning that Entwistle’s career high faceoff win percentage is a measly 46.5% in 2022-23. He can play on the fourth line if needed, but also don’t be surprised if the 25-year-old starts the season with AHL Charlotte.
DEFENSEMEN
Nate Schmidt (1 year, $800K contract)
Similar to Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Nate Schmidt was bought out by a Canadian team after a few seasons of under-performance and is coming to Florida with the hopes of reviving his career after some stagnation. Schmidt comes to Florida after three seasons in Winnipeg, the first of which was aligned with current Panthers head coach Paul Maurice’s final season in Manitoba. Schmidt’s first season in Winnipeg was his best as he put up 32 points in 77 games. In his other two seasons in Winnipeg, Schmidt combined for 33 points in 134 games under Rick Bowness, whose system proved to not be a good fit for Schmidt. Schmidt is more of an offensive-minded defenseman who loves to join up in the rush, which should bode well for him in Florida, who love to have their defensemen activate in the rush and contribute offensively. Don’t expect Schmidt to put up a crazy amount of points however, as his career best is 36 points back in 2017-18, when he was on the Stanley Cup Finalist Vegas Golden Knights. That being said, Schmidt should be able to contribute in all three zones and add some added punch on the power play, which is important for the Panthers considering that they lost both of their power play quarterbacks in free agency.
Adam Boqvist (1 year, $775K contract)
The Panthers added a defenseman in Adam Boqvist who, just like his brother Jesper, has some tantalizing upside that makes him look like a classic low-risk, high-reward pickup. Boqvist is a former 8th overall pick back in 2018 who may be small (he stands between 5’11” and 6’0”) but does have fantastic offensive potential and already shows some good puck-moving ability and hockey sense. Boqvist has struggled to stay healthy with Chicago and Columbus as he only played 35 games last season and only played more than 50 games once in his career (2021-22; he played 56 games). If he stays healthy, Boqvist should be the team’s power play quarterback and contribute a lot to the offensive attack from the back end. He was seen as a prototypical new-age defenseman when he was drafted: a small puck-mover with fantastic offensive upside, but as the NHL refocuses on bigger defensemen, smaller guys with upside but lack that elite talent are being cast aside. Boqvist was a victim of that trend this off-season as Columbus bought the 24-year-old out of his contract, but if he stays healthy, Florida should have another fantastic bargain on their hands.
Jaycob Megna (1 year, $775K Two-Way contract)
Born in Plantation, Florida, Jaycob Megna has only played 185 NHL games in his career and likely will spend most of or all of the season in the AHL with Charlotte. Throughout the past few years, Megna has gained a reputation as a serviceable defensive defenseman with solid advanced metrics even if he can’t contribute much on the offensive side of the puck. The 31-year-old has the size that the NHL is favoring again in their defensemen (6’6”, 220 pounds) and has shown an ability to play 17-18 minutes a night and perform admirably even on poor teams like San Jose or Chicago. It is not likely that Megna will play much for Florida this year, but should the team need a 6th/7th defenseman at any point to come up from Charlotte and play some respectable defense, expect Megna to get a call up.
GOALTENDERS
Chris Driedger (1 year, $795K contract)
Meet this new guy! He’s the same as an old friend! Chris Driedger got his first real NHL breakthrough in 2019-20 where he got a shutout in his first start in Florida and played a solid 12 games. The next year, he played 23 games and was a fantastic backup for the Panthers in their pursuit of the 2020-21 Central Division title. In his two seasons with Florida, Driedger put up an incredible 22 goals saved above average which was important especially as Sergei Bobrovsky notably struggled early on in his Florida tenure. Driedger left for Seattle in 2021 via the expansion draft, but struggled in his first season in Seattle, playing 27 games with an .899 save percentage and -5.9 goals saved above average. Driedger missed the entirety of the 2022-23 season with a knee injury and only played 2 NHL games in 2023-24. Driedger was very good as the starter for Seattle’s AHL team in Coachella Valley, who were the runners-up in the league, so even if he’s not the goaltender he once was (a capable backup who could play 25-30 games at the NHL level) and might not be able to consistently play in the NHL, it helps that Driedger is a more than capable third-string goalie who can be called on for a spot start if needed if Bobrovsky or Spencer Knight get hurt or hit a run of poor form.
Free agency was mostly a time of goodbyes for Florida as players like Brandon Montour and Kevin Stenlund left to get good paychecks from other teams, but while there’s plenty of publicity about who left, there should also be some attention on who’s coming in, especially since the players who left won’t help this team defend their title; only the guys coming in will. Hopefully, this brief overview of the new signings gives you some indication of what they will likely do for the Panthers and what they will bring to the team as they try to make a push for a second consecutive Stanley Cup.