Approaching NHL Free Agency, most hockey fans expected the Florida Panthers to do two things. One was to trade for Connor Hellebuyck and solidify their goalie concerns for the rest of the decade. After that, most expected them to sit quietly since they had no cap space to do anything.
Despite the shockwave of moves over the past two weeks, including the acquisition of Brady Tkachuk and Jacob Markström, General Manager Bill Zito was far from done making headlines.
"There’s some juice now. It’s starting to flow.”
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) July 2, 2026
Bill Zito speaks to the media after the start of free agency ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/SeLYex1VBl
Instead of making a deal for Hellebuyck, he brought back Markström, an original Panthers draft pick from 2008, who played parts of four seasons with the club. Then, Zito sent A.J. Greer's signing rights to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for the rights to former defenseman Radko Gudas.
As soon as free agency opened at noon, Gudas rejoined the team he skated with from 2021 to 2023 with a six-year deal. Then, as the ink on that new deal dried, Florida announced it extended Eeti Luostarinen for eight years at $5 million annually.
Next, the Panthers retained Sandis Vilmanis, who skated in 19 NHL games last season and is only 22. Meanwhile, the team re-signed Cole Schwindt, another young prospect, just a few days after they decided not to provide him a qualifying offer as a restricted free agent.
An hour or so into free agency, Florida added another piece to the reunion tour by bringing back defenseman Alex Petrovic from the Dallas Stars. As another skater originally drafted by the Panthers in 2010, he’ll get a chance to skate alongside Markström again, as they were teammates in 2012-13.
However, Zito was far from done on the day, bringing in former Stanley Cup champion Lars Eller on a two-year deal. He’ll slide into the bottom six and has over 1,000 games of NHL experience on a modest $900k salary.
Just when everyone thought Florida had no room to do anything else, they re-signed Tobias Bjornfot before acquiring Sam Lafferty, Bokondji Imama, and John Beecher, who have a combined 729 NHL games on their resume. The quartet of players could see a game or two in Florida, but will mostly serve as depth skaters in the AHL with two-way deals.
Interestingly, the Panthers have yet to find a partner to share the crease with Markström, although they recently acquired Akira Schmid from the Vegas Golden Knights. The 26-year-old is a restricted free agent with 82 NHL games under his belt.
After an unusually busy day for a team with little to no cap space and pegged to be Stanley Cup contenders, Zito and his executive team have only $1.4 million in cap space to find another goalie, tie up any loose ends regarding players on two-way deals, and fill out their minor league rosters.
It’s been a wild and crazy offseason for the Panthers, but their revamped lineup will be chasing their third Stanley Cup in four seasons.
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