A Look at 5 New Players on the Florida Panthers 2024-25 Roster

The Florida Panthers won its first National Hockey League (NHL) championship in 2023-24, beating the Edmonton Oilers in seven games in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final. While there were some concerns that the team would look quite different in 2024-25, the Panthers opened the new season with largely the same roster. Florida re-signed pending free agent Sam Reinhart, who scored the game-winning goal in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, to an eight-year, $69 million contract on July 1. The team also re-signed Carter Verhaeghe, who scored a team-leading 11 goals in the playoffs, to an eight-year contract extension.

Rather than having to make major changes to address positional needs in the offseason, the Panthers signed a few depth forwards and defensemen to fill out its roster. Here's a look at Florida's new players in the 2024-25 NHL season.

 

A.J. Greer

Playing on a line with another new Panther, Jesper Boqvist, and Jonah Gadjovich, A.J. Greer had a memorable performance in his first game with the Panthers on October 8. The 6-foot-3, 209-pound left winger, signed to a two-year contract in the offseason, assisted on Gadjovich's goal and had a momentum-building fight in the Panthers' 6-4 win over rival Boston Bruins.

"The place was so loud. Once you sit down in the penalty box, you start hearing it," Greer said of the energy in the building after his fight. "Just with the flow of the game and how it all went down, I think that it was the right time to kind of step up. It was eventually going to happen at some point in that game, so might as well get it out early. It was a good fight, and we fed off that energy. We got two quick goals right after that."

Selected 39th overall by the Colorado Avalanche in the 2015 NHL Draft, Greer played two seasons at Boston University before joining the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), where he had 27 points (16 goals, 11 assists) in 33 regular season games and won a league championship. He split the next four seasons with Colorado and its American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate. He later played with the New Jersey Devils, Bruins, and Calgary Flames, recording 32 points (13 goals, 19 assists) in 167 career games before signing with Florida.

 

Jesper Boqvist

Florida signed Jesper Boqvist and his brother Adam in the offseason. Jesper, a 25-year-old center selected by the Devils in the 2017 NHL Draft, agreed to a one-year, $775,000 contract on July 1. He was signed to fill a role on the Panthers' bottom two forward lines, which lost Kevin Stenlund, Ryan Lomberg, Nick Cousins, and Steven Lorentz to free agency.

A versatile forward capable of playing center or on the wing, Jesper is a strong forechecker who has had varying degrees of success in the NHL since debuting with the Devils in the 2019-20 season. He had just four points in 35 games that season, but produced a career-best 23 points (10 goals, 13 assists) in 56 games in 2021-22. He split last season with the Bruins and its AHL affiliate in Providence.

 

Adam Boqvist

Adam, who is two years younger than his brother, was a highly-touted defenseman as a teenager, drafted eighth overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. He made his NHL debut with Chicago in the 2019-20 season and recorded 29 points (6 goals, 23 assists) in 76 games over two seasons with the team before the Blackhawks dealt him to the Columbus Blue Jackets in a trade involving defenseman Seth Jones.

Boqvist had 56 points (17 goals, 39 assists) through three seasons in Columbus, but the team surprisingly bought out the final season of his contract on June 30 due to injury issues and inconsistent play. A skilled offensive defenseman, Adam said he talked with his brother, who had just signed with Florida, and Panthers GM Bill Zito before deciding to sign a one-year, $775,000 contract with the team. The brothers have never played on the same NHL team, but were teammates on Brynäs IF Gävle in Sweden in 2017-18.

 

Nate Schmidt

Florida also signed veteran defenseman Nate Schmidt to a one-year, $800,000 contract in the offseason. A 32-year-old native of St. Cloud, Minnesota, Schmidt spent the last three seasons with the Winnipeg Jets and had 14 points (2 goals, 12 assists) in 63 games last season. He has played more than 650 regular season games with the Jets, Vancouver Canucks, Vegas Golden Knights, and Washington Capitals.

Schmidt had 220 points (47 goals, 173 assists) before signing with the Panthers. He was most productive from 2017-18 to 2021-22, recording at least 30 points in four of five seasons.

 

Patrick Giles

Patrick Giles, a 24-year-old rookie from Chevy Chase, Maryland, cracked the Panthers roster out of training camp. Florida signed Giles to a two-year, entry-level contract in 2022 after he impressed with its AHL affiliate in Charlotte. The Boston College alumnus had 23 points (13 goals, 10 assists) in 66 games with Charlotte last season. He made his NHL debut on October 12 against the Buffalo Sabres.

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