30. Florida Panthers

Individual Breakdown

For the Florida Panthers, the team was mostly in consensus for these rankings. 24 different players got votes within the top-15, however, of the nine that did not make the final rankings, none had more than two placements.

What we are left with is a prospect pool with very little depth, but some decent top-end talent that will be helping the Panthers very soon.

Mackie Samoskevich was by far and away the consensus top prospect. He earned a score of 7.3 on average, and an 8 from four of our analysts. The 21-year-old is in the midst of his first professional season with the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL, and has 18-27-45 in 55 games. With the Panthers’ cap situation headed to a much less favourable place with extensions to Gustav Forsling, and likely ones to Sam Reinhart and possibly Brandon Montour, Samoskevich is likely to see NHL games next season, if not just as a full-time NHLer.

Jack Devine, Justin Sourdif, and Gracyn Sawchyn were the other three players to score over a 5.0, before the Panthers prospect pool falls off somewhat.

Devine, who was one of the last picks in the 2022 draft (221st overall), has an incredible 56 points in 42 games for the University of Denver this season, and may slot into the team’s bottom-six within the next few years. His rapid development over the last few years suggests he may surpass that projection, but with a score of 5.7, the DobberProspects team is still bearish on his upside.

Sourdif, 22, made a three-game NHL debut this season, but has spent most of the campaign with the Charlotte Checkers. His 30 points in 51 games is far from bad, but it is probably a little less than the Panthers organization hoped for one of their top prospects. For the same reasons as Samoskevich, Sourdif may find himself in the lineup on opening night of the 2024-25 season due to his favourable cap hit.

Finally, Sawchyn, a player that I was a big fan of in the 2023 draft, is still only 19, and has crossed the point-per-game mark with the Edmonton Oil Kings. He has been assigned to the Charlotte Checkers to end off the regular season, and depending on his performance, is a very real option for the Panthers next season. The high-energy two-way winger isn’t fun to play against, and would fit well with fellow Panthers bottom-six players like Nick Cousins for that reason.

The Panthers don’t have a first round pick until 2026, but coming off a run to the Stanley Cup Final, and armed with a likely Selke finalist in Aleksandar Barkov, as well as Matthew Tkachuk, and the rejuvenated Sergei Bobrovsky, there are certainly worse places to be as an organization.