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Emily KaplanOct 2, 2025, 10:12 PM<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Emily Kaplan is ESPN’s national NHL reporter.<\/p>\n The Florida Panthers<\/a> are finalizing a long-term extension with defenseman Niko Mikkola<\/a>, sources told ESPN on Thursday.<\/p>\n The deal, which could be announced as soon as this week, means the two-time defending champions will have their top four defensemen locked in until at least 2030, with Gustav Forsling<\/a>, Aaron Ekblad<\/a> and Seth Jones<\/a> already committed to long-term deals.<\/p>\n The Panthers are beginning their quest for a three-peat without two of their biggest stars. Matthew Tkachuk<\/a> is recovering from offseason surgery and is expected back around December. Captain Aleksander Barkov<\/a> tore his ACL and MCL at a preseason practice and has a projected recovery from surgery of seven to nine months.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks Mikkola, 29, has found his game with the Panthers, where he was a key defensive cog in each of their Stanley Cup wins. He has appeared in 46 playoff games over the past two seasons, averaging 19:23 per contest. He also scored some clutch, if unlikely, goals, including the game winner in Game 3 of the 2025 Eastern Conference finals against the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>. At 6-foot-6, 205 pounds, Mikkola’s brand blends physicality with strong skating.<\/p>\n A native of Finland, Mikkola was selected by the St. Louis Blues<\/a> in the fifth round (No. 127) of the 2015 NHL draft. After three seasons in St. Louis, he was traded to the New York Rangers<\/a> in 2023 as part of the Vladimir Tarasenko<\/a> deal.<\/p>\n He signed a three-year, $7.5 million contract with the Panthers in 2023 as a free agent. This season is the final year of that deal; the extension will kick in for 2026-27.<\/p>\n Mikkola is expected to be named to the Finnish team for the 2026 Olympics in Milan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emily KaplanOct 2, 2025, 10:12 PM CloseEmily Kaplan is ESPN’s national NHL reporter. The Florida Panthers are finalizing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-184995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/r1407437_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&w=130&h=130&scale=crop&location=center.jpeg\")
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