The 32-in-32 Series is an annual event here at DobberProspects and has been condensed from two articles to one. The article will bring you: The highlighted team’s draft; insights into its off-season moves; looking at prospect risers, fallers, and likely prospects to play NHL games; and of course, the writers’ top-20 prospects. Articles may be brought back when an important team update occurs, so check back because we plan to fill your hockey withdrawal needs all off-season!

***

Make sure to check out the Florida Panthers team page here: https://dobberprospects.com/team/florida-panthers/

To view past 32s go here: https://dobberprospects.com/category/feature/32-in-32-series/

***

Back to back champions! If the celebrations are anything to go off of, the second time around tastes just as sweet. With a roster better than their 2024 cup winner, many thought that the Cats would need to lose some big names, with many thinking at least one of Aaron Ekblad, Sam Bennett, or Brad Marchand would leave for more money elsewhere. But winning makes guys stick around and now the Panthers have the deepest core in recent memory extended for the foreseeable future. No team has done it since the early 1980s New York Islanders, but the Florida Panthers could be the next NHL team to three-peat.

***

NHL Draft Recap

Round 4, 112 overall: Mads Kongsbak Klyvo, LW

Klyvo is one of the more intriguing players from the 2025 draft. This is a player who spent the entire year at the under-20/under-18 level only to get called up to the SHL for the playoffs. Yes, he did not score a point in the SHL playoffs but he looked the part in the professional game, indicating a higher floor. The Panthers drafted a player with a professional frame who will certainly see hundreds of professional games: the question is in which league. The best part of Kongsbak Klyvo’s game is his skating, which projects incredibly well. When a player skates well and has a big frame (6-2, 194 lbs), they are almost always a strong bet for the NHL. Coupled with the meteoric rise Kongsbak Klyvo had in the second half of his season, this could be one of the steals of the 2025 NHL draft. 

Round 4, 128 overall: Shea Busch, LW

If you thought Mads Kongsbak Klyvo had an NHL frame, get ready to meet Busch. Standing at 6-2 and 212 lbs, Busch has an NHL frame. He started last year in the BCHL but after the CHL-NCAA agreement, Busch jumped to the WHL to finish out the year. He will be heading to Penn State this fall, Busch will play alongside plenty of other high end talents. What separates Busch is his physicality which was too much for WHL competition a lot of the time and allowed for him to excel on the powerplay as a net front presence. However, the skating is quite suspect for Busch which stifles his projection a bit and makes it harder to identify whether Busch will become an impact bottom-six player or if he will instead be an AHLer. Only time and development will tell. Expect for Busch to spend at least three years at Penn State before making the jump to professional hockey. 

Round 5, 129 overall: Shamar Moses, RW

Moses, like the prior two picks, has an NHL frame at 6-1 and 201 lbs. More intriguingly, Moses has the highest offensive upside among this Panthers draft pool. He should have gone at least 50-70 picks earlier. His shooting and passing are far and away his best assets and he projects as a boom or bust middle-six winger. Moses will need to work with a skating coach to become an NHLer but the upside here is quite interesting. Watch for a big year in the OHL next year. 

Round 6, 192 overall: Arvid Drott, RW

Drott creates offense off the rush like few others. When he gets up to speed, there will be a hard time stopping him. He shoots the puck well but his bread and butter is his skating. Without the puck, Drott is quite effective in the defensive zone. Like the prior three picks, Drott projects as a power forward at the NHL level. Whether he will get there is the question. With Drott being the last forward taken in this class, it is clear that the Panthers wanted to achieve one thing up front: get size to play the style that won back-to-back Stanley Cups. All four of the forwards drafted have the upside to do that at the NHL level.

Round 7, 197 overall: Brendan Dunphy, LD

Like Busch, Dunphy made the jump from the BCHL to the WHL this past season and will be jumping to the NCAA next year. Dunphy’s scoring took a massive jump when moving from the BCHL to the WHL, which is quite interesting, as the BCHL is the much easier league of the two. Standing at 6-5, Dunphy is an excellent physical force in the defensive zone, which could see him carve out an NHL career. While his scoring may never translate to the NHL level, if he becomes a player for the Panthers, this is a wonderful pick. 

Round 7, 224 overall: Yegor Midlak, G

With the final pick in the 2025 NHL draft, the Panthers took Midlak, a goalie from Russia. Standing at 6-6, Midlak takes up a lot of the net on size alone. When drafting goaltenders, there is zero harm in heading to Russia and picking a few, as in any given year, it seems like a couple of netminders out of Russia become very good. Midlak could be good, but to be honest, you cannot have the highest hopes for the last player selected in the draft. 

***

Off-Season Moves

Incoming

Daniil Tarasov

Jeff Petry

Nolan Foote

Brandon Bussi

Jack Studnicka

Outgoing

Justin Sourdif

Nate Schmidt

Nico Sturm

Jesse Puljujarvi

Vitek Vanecek

Kaapo Kahkonen

Re-Signed

Aaron Ekblad – 8 years X $6.1 million

Sam Bennett – 8 years X $8 million

Brad Marchand – 6 years X $5.25 million

Tomas Nosek – 1 year X $775,000

Mackie Samoskevich – 1 year X $775,000

***

In the System

Risers

Hunter St. Martin (LW): St. Martin is a personal favorite in the Panthers’ system. A true Swiss Army Knife of a player, St. Martin scored 39 goals last year, finishing second only to Gavin McKenna on Medicine Hat. What makes St. Martin so good is his ability to score in various ways, whether that is a wrister from outside the dots or a greasy goal in the crease. St. Martin has proved to be one of the most versatile goal scorers in the CHL. Medicine Hat probably wants to get St. Martin back for another year, where they will be severely depleted of talent (Gavin McKenna, Ryder Ritchie, and Cayden Lindstrom all heading to the NCAA), but the Panthers could view it best for his development to get St. Martin into some professional games. 

Jack Devine (RW): Devine has achieved just about everything you can achieve in the NCAA. He has won multiple national championships and has been the best player on Denver for the better part of two years now. He signed his ELC with the Panthers at the end of the year last season and has already jumped into a few professional games with the Charlotte Checkers, where he scored seven points across 10 games. Devine could see NHL action as soon as this year.

Mackie Samoskevich (RW): This will be the last written piece that considers Samoskevich a prospect, and for good reason. Samoskevich had a dynamite rookie year with the Panthers that saw him finish off the year as a Stanley Cup Champion, forever having his name etched into history. Samoskevich signed a one-year extension with the Cats for the league minimum salary, a move which baffled fans as Samoskevich is deserving of at least triple what he signed for. However, it looks like Samoskevich will get a massive raise come this time next year. There is zero reason why Samoskevich will not be an NHLer for the foreseeable future with the Panthers.

*

Fallers

Evan Nause (LD): Nause, originally a second-round pick, has failed to live up to the hype of his draft position. He spent the entire year last year in the ECHL and looks like he may never crack the NHL. Unfortunately, injuries have been a massive issue for Nause, and in another world, he would have stayed healthy and established himself in the Panthers’ lineup by now.

Luke Coughlin (LD): Coughlin had an underwhelming final year in the QMJHL, where his scoring pace took a step back from last year. He was on an excellent Rimouski team, which saw his opportunities fall a bit with better defensemen ahead of him, but overall, this player has failed to live up to his potential. He will head to Maine next year and will hopefully be able to find his footing on a team with a strong structure. At this stage, it does not seem like Coughlin will be an NHL player.

Vladislav Lukashevich (LD): Lukashevich was one of the most productive defensemen in the USHL two years ago and made the jump to the NCAA last year, where he struggled. At Michigan State, Lukeshevich scored seven points in 29 games and will be transferring to Miami University in Ohio to continue his NCAA career. There, he will have much more opportunity and hopefully will prove that last year was not a fluke. 

*

Likely to see NHL action

Mackie Samoskevich

Jack Devine

***

Top 20 Prospects

This section is intended to paint a picture of the Florida Panthers prospects whose current trajectory projects them making the most positive fantasy impact at the time that they reach the NHL. Arrival date and NHL certainty have been taken into consideration; however, potential upside is the most important factor in determining this list.

1. Mackie Samoskevich
2. Gracyn Sawchyn
3. Jack Devine
4. Daniil Tarasov
5. Linus Eriksson
6. Michael Benning
7. Matvei Shuravin
8. Arvid Drott
9. Sandis Vilmanis
10. Mads Kongsbak Klyvo
11. Shamar Moses
12. Olof Glifford
13. Hunter St. Martin
14. Kirill Gerasimyuk
15. Simon Zether
16. Shea Busch
17. Mikulas Hovorka
18. Oliver Okuliar
19. Stepan Gorbunov
20. Ryan McAllister

***

Final thoughts

The Panthers are a team set up for success in the now and the future. With a prospect pool that is underrated, plenty of current NHL talents locked up for the foreseeable future, and a few draft picks, the Panthers look like a team ready to three-peat next spring. They made many incredible moves throughout the draft and free agency, which caps off with their current roster looking just about the same as the roster they carried into game six of the Stanley Cup Finals. GM Bill Zito has done more than enough to prove that the Panthers are the team to beat in the league. It is hard to win the off-season after winning the Stanley Cup, but the Panthers did that just by not getting worse.

***

Make sure to check out the Florida Panthers team page here: https://dobberprospects.com/team/florida-panthers/

***

Thank you for reading! Follow me on X  @JamesConnelly37 for more Florida Panthers prospect content.