{"id":185200,"date":"2025-10-02T14:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T14:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/185200\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T14:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T14:39:07","slug":"panthers-sign-niko-mikkola-to-eight-year-contract-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/185200\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers sign Niko Mikkola to eight-year contract extension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The defenceman signed an eight-year contract extension with the Panthers, the team <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FlaPanthers\/status\/1973750223701979607\" rel=\"nofollow\">announced<\/a> on Thursday. The deal will carry an average annual value of $5 million, Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ByTimReynolds\/status\/1973751635227890173\" rel=\"nofollow\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNiko has proven himself to be a dependable defenceman who uses his speed and physicality to impact both ends of the ice,\u201d Panthers GM Bill Zito said in a statement. \u201cHe was an indispensable piece of our past two championship campaigns, and we are thrilled that Niko will be continuing his career with the <a class=\"sn-team-post-link\" data-team=\"florida-panthers\" data-league=\"nhl\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/hockey\/nhl\/teams\/florida-panthers\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Florida Panthers<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The extension will commence in the 2026-27 season. <\/p>\n<p>Mikkola has been an important shutdown D-man for a Panthers team that has won back-to-back Stanley Cups. <\/p>\n<p>Last season, the 29-year-old defenceman produced career highs in goals (6), assists (16), points (22) and plus-minus (plus-12). He also led all Panthers defencemen in hits (137) and ranked second on the team in blocked shots (88).<\/p>\n<p>Mikkola then added three goals and three assists over 22 playoff games to help the Panthers capture a second straight Stanley Cup. <\/p>\n<p>Originally selected in the fifth round of the 2017 NHL Draft by the St. Louis Blues, Mikkola has 62 career points over 328 regular-season games with the Panthers, Blues and New York Rangers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The defenceman signed an eight-year contract extension with the Panthers, the team announced on Thursday. The deal will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-185200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}