Sandis Vilmanis

August 2023 – Vilmanis, 19, has raised his stocks since Florida took him in the fifth round a year ago by representing his native Latvia at several international tournaments. He stood out on an oft-outmatched team because of his slick puck handling and dangerous wrist shot, coming up with clutch goals and helping buoy his teammates against superior competition. Vilmanis spent last year adjusting to North American play in the OHL after coming up through the Swedish system, a move that brought him one step closer to wearing the Cat on his chest. He was a secondary scorer (45 points in 62 games) on a strong Sarnia team in 2022-23, showing some improvements in the weaker areas of his game, especially inconsistent engagement and slow processing speed. Panthers fans will be hoping their depth pick from 2022 takes another step forward in 2023-24 and continues to generate value for their relatively depleted pipeline. Ben Gehrels

May 2023 – Vilmanis has difficulty processing his options at full speed and slows down more out of necessity. That said, he performed well at the J20 level in Sweden in 2021-22, scoring 32 points in only 40 games, including 18 goals. A promising sign: most of his points were of the primary variety, meaning he was directly impacting play instead of benefitting by proxy via secondary assists. He then took his talents to the OHL, where he racked up a respectable 45 points in 62 games. Vilmanis is the kind of player who thrives with the extra space to work with on a powerplay. He will likely re-up with Sarnia for the 2023-24 campaign, which will give Panthers brass a clearer idea of what they have in him. Ben Gehrels