SUNRISE, Fla. \u2013\u00a0Florida\u00a0Panthers President of Hockey Operations and General Manager\u00a0Bill Zito\u00a0announced today that the club has agreed to an\u00a0eight-year extension with\u00a0forward\u00a0Eetu Luostarinen\u00a0commencing with\u00a0the\u00a02027-28\u00a0season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA key piece of our two Stanley Cups, I am thrilled that Eetu will continue his career with the Panthers,\u201d said Zito. \u201cA consummate professional who is committed to being a difference maker at both ends of the ice, his work at even strength and on the penalty kill is critical to our team success in South Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Luostarinen, 27,\u00a0skated in 73 games with Florida in 2025-26\u00a0compiling 33 points (11-22-33),\u00a0the second-most points in one season in his career, and led all Florida forwards with 139:53 total shorthanded time on ice\u00a0and 57 blocked shots. He averaged\u00a0a career\u00a0high\u00a016:34\u00a0time\u00a0on ice per game\u00a0and\u00a0ranked\u00a0fifth on Florida with 121 hits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-3, 191-pound native of\u00a0Siilinjarvi, Finland has\u00a0skated in 447 career NHL games between the Panthers (2020-21 to 2025-26) and Carolina Hurricanes (2019-20), logging 162 points (61-101-162) and a plus-24 rating.\u00a0Since 2020-21 he leads all Florida forwards in shorthanded time on ice (947:53)\u00a0and ranks third on the team in penalties drawn in that span (101), leading the Panthers with a plus-36 net penalty rating.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the Stanley Cup Playoffs,\u00a0Luostarinen has\u00a0produced 34 points (10-24-34) in 73 games with the Panthers.\u00a0He recorded eight points (2-6-8) over 24 games in the 2023-24\u00a0postseason\u00a0helping Florida capture its first Stanley Cup, then set career highs with\u00a0five goals, 14 assists and 19 points in\u00a023 games in\u00a0Florida\u2019s 2024-25\u00a0Stanley Cup run.\u00a0He holds the franchise\u00a0record for most points in a playoff road game, registering four\u00a0(1-3-4)\u00a0in Round 1, Game 5\u00a0on\u00a0April 30, 2025\u00a0at\u00a0Tampa Bay.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the international stage, Luostarinen\u00a0earned a bronze medal\u00a0representing\u00a0his home country\u00a0at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026\u00a0where he notched four assists over six games.\u00a0He also\u00a0won\u00a0a\u00a0gold\u00a0medal\u00a0with Finland at the 2019 IIHF World Championship\u00a0and competed for Finland in the 2025\u00a04 Nations Face-Off.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Outside of his career in\u00a0North America, Luostarinen spent\u00a0parts of\u00a0four\u00a0seasons (2016-17 to 2018-19, 2020-21) in Finland with\u00a0KalPa\u00a0(Liiga). He appeared in 158\u00a0games, collecting\u00a078\u00a0points (29-49-78). Luostarinen won the Spengler Cup with\u00a0KalPa\u00a0in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Luostarinen\u00a0was originally selected by Carolina in the second round (42nd overall) of the 2017 NHL Draft\u00a0and\u00a0acquired\u00a0by Florida on\u00a0February 24, 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n
2026-27 Florida Panthers Territory Memberships are available now! Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to learn more. For all the latest in\u00a0Panthers\u00a0news, concerts and events at\u00a0Amerant\u00a0Bank Arena & FTL War Memorial, sign up for\u00a0’93 Society newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and receive information straight to your inbox. Visit\u00a0FloridaPanthers.com<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0SeatGeek.com<\/a>\u00a0for all ticketing needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SUNRISE, Fla. \u2013\u00a0Florida\u00a0Panthers President of Hockey Operations and General Manager\u00a0Bill Zito\u00a0announced today that the club has agreed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-326984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}