Panthers 2025 Free Agents, Draft Targets, Offseason Guide After NHL Final Win

The Florida Panthers are Stanley Cup champions for a second straight season.

The Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers 5-1 in a championship-clinching Game 6 to finish on top of the NHL for a consecutive postseason.

Now comes the difficult part for the two-time defending champions.

With players like Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett hitting free agency, how much of the championship roster can the Panthers keep together?

Here's a look at some of the offseason decisions the Panthers will need to make before attempting a championship three-peat in 2026.

Free Agents

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Contract information from PuckPedia

Unrestricted free agents: Brad Marchand, Sam Bennett, Tomas Nosek, Nico Sturm, Jaycob Megna, Nate Schmidt, Aaron Ekblad, Vitek Vanecek

Restricted free agents: Mackie Samoskevich

After their 2024 Stanley Cup win, the Panthers re-signed Sam Reinhart but lost key players from the previous championship team like Brandon Montour, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Anthony Stolarz.

The Panthers are destined for more turnover this season as the franchise grapples with decisions regarding nine free agents, including two players who have been key to helping the Panthers maintain their identity as a physical, hard-hitting matchup.

Bennett, the Panthers' second-line center, provided the Panthers with critical scoring this spring. He is turning 29 on June 20 and could be looking to build on this playoff run with a multi-year extension.

Marchand, acquired in a deadline trade with the Boston Bruins, provided veteran leadership while helping make the Panthers' bottom six a matchup nightmare for opponents.

He could also be looking for multiple years of contract security on his next deal. The 37-year-old told NHL.com's Amalie Benjamin that playing the 2024-25 season on an expiring contract had not been his preference, and that the situation had left him with "a lot of stress."

The Panthers also have a decision to make on Aaron Ekblad, who has been skating on the Florida's top pairing alongside Gustav Forsling. He is likely to be one of the top defenseman to hit free agency this season, leaving open the possibility the Panthers could get outbid by another team interested in adding to their blue line.

Bottom-pairing defenseman Nate Schmidt is also set to hit free agency. So is backup goaltender Vitek Vanecek, who has recorded limited playing time and made no postseason appearances since his midseason trade from the San Jose Sharks.

If the Panthers decide to move on from Vanecek in free agency, they may want to prioritize finding a reliable backup who can take more of the workload from Sergei Bobrovsky next fall.

Nico Sturm, another midseason acquisition from the Sharks, spent most of the postseason as a healthy scratch as the Panthers largely turned to fellow pending UFA Tomas Nosek as fourth-line center instead.

Mackie Samoskevich, a 2021 first-round pick, is meanwhile hitting restricted free agency after posting 15 goals and 31 points in 72 games during his first full season in the NHL.

Bennett, Marchand and Ekblad are the Panthers' biggest questions heading into free agency. All other pending free agents could lead to a shuffle among the Panthers' bottom six forwards as well as a new bottom defense pairing and backup goaltender.

Draft Targets

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Draft information from PuckPedia

Draft pick totals

Round 1: 0

Round 2: 0

Round 3: 0

Round 4: 2

Round 5: 2

Round 6: 1

Round 7: 1

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The Panthers are paying the price of their recent playoff success in the 2025 NHL draft.

Florida owes the No. 32 pick to the Carolina Hurricanes as part of the 2022 trade for Matthew Tkachuk.

That leaves the Panthers without a first-round pick for the fourth straight year. In fact, the Cats don't have any picks in the first three rounds of the 2025 draft.

Now that Mackie Samoskevich is a full-time NHLer, the Panthers' top prospect is winger Justin Sourdif. With only a few other prospects like University of Denver winger Jack Devine potentially on track to see NHL playing time in the near future Florida could use a boost at pretty much every position in the prospect pool.

Given the lateness of the Panthers' picks, the team likely can't afford to be choosy. Selecting the most skilled player available by the time Florida gets on the board in Round 4 will be the best way to bolster the prospect pool heading into 2025-26.

There is one position the Panthers could particularly target given the departure of Spencer Knight and the potential loss of Vanecek. Emerging from the 2025 draft with a netminder would be a win for a franchise in need of rebuilding their goaltending pipeline.