Florida Panthers 2025 Roster Preview: Second Pair Defensemen

A pair that came together late in the year but was an absolute nightmare to play against. Florida’s second defensive pairing has size, quick puck movement, and isn’t afraid to throw the body. Mikkola just finished his second season with the Panthers and is an underrated part of their defense. Seth Jones came in at the trade deadline and made an immediate impact. The Cats now have one of the most formidable top 4s on the back end with Forsling-Ekblad and Mikkola-Jones. Mikkola isn’t up for contract until next season, and Jones is signed through 2030. Jones is a minutes eater, and Mikkola is heavy on the physicality. Paired together, they’ve found chemistry quickly and are able to cover a lot of ice with their size.

Niko Mikkola:

Two years with the Panthers, two Stanley Cups. Not a bad way to start a tenure with a new team. Mikkola had a career year with Florida this past season, posting a career-high 22 pts (6G, 16A) in 76 games. There was a noticeable shift in Mikkola’s game to be more aggressive offensively, as he often took shots on net early in the game. He had a career-high 20:11 TOI this past year and matched his career-high in shooting percentage at 5.2 with 116 SOG. Niko doesn’t generally see the ice much for special teams with Forsling, Ekblad, and Jones doing most of the heavy lifting there, and Kulikov being a strong presence on the PK. With Jones now as his defensive partner, HC Paul Maurice feels confident to put them out against anybody. Especially on the road, Mikkola and Jones generally get put out with the Barkov line to start the game so that the Panthers can cover the opponent’s best players with either Barkov or Forsling, but usually not both, like they do at home. Mikkola also had a career year in the postseason, where he played 22 of the 23 games, putting up a career best 3 Goals 3 Assists with 20:12 TOI. Niko had 18 SOG and shot at a career-high 16.7% with one game-winning goal and a power play assist. His power play assist came during Game 3 of the Cup Final when HC Paul Maurice opted to put out his third power play unit, and Mikkola made the pass to Rodrigues, who scored. Nicknamed The Condour by Maurice, Niko’s the tallest player on the team, 6’6, and uses his size to forcheck hard. When Brad Marchand joined the team one of the first things he told the media he said to Mikkola was that he was glad he didn’t have to get hit by him anymore every time he had the puck. Like his other Finnish teammates, he was named to the Team Finland roster 4 Nations roster. It was a more interesting experience for him due to how many injuries Finland’s defensive roster had. With that, the situation necessitated Mikkola to play top-pairing minutes for the Finns, and he stepped up well into the larger role asked of him. Although not named to the first six players for Finland’s Olympic roster, I expect he’ll be on the team heading to Italy in February.

Seth Jones:

Florida was in need of a right-shot defenseman, and Seth Jones was the man to fill the position. Florida spent most of last season needing to fill the hole in the roster left by Brandon Montour, and they were finally able to address it just before the trade deadline. GM Bill Zito was familiar with Jones from his days in Columbus with the Blue Jackets, so when he was available, Zito made the trade. Spencer Knight headed to Chicago, and Jones came to South Florida, quickly making an impact. In Florida’s first four games with the newly assembled defense, they had three shutouts. With a championship roster around him, the burden of production and being a number 1 d-man doesn’t fall solely on him anymore. For the season, he put up 36 pts (9G, 27A) with a 24:38 TOI. He played a couple of roles for Florida, especially when Ekblad wasn’t available. HC Paul Maurice had him run the top power-play unit and play on the penalty kill, where he tallied 4 PPA; for the season, he had 5 PPG, 14 PPA. Seth was shooting at the higher end of his average at a 7.0 for the season. Seth also had a career-best year in the postseason. In 23 games, he had 9 pts (4G, 5A) with a team high 25:30 TOI. However, the 25:30 TOI is actually a career low for him; in every other postseason he’s played in, he’s averaged 26 minutes a night to as high as 32:40. For special teams, Jones posted 1 PPG and 2 PPA with 1 GWG. He had a career-best 13.8 shooting percentage with 29 SOG. With Chicago retaining 2.5M of his contract, Jones is only costing the Panthers 7M a year and is the highest-paid defender on the team. With term on his current contract, it also means that Florida didn’t have to go into this offseason looking for yet another right-shot defenseman or go through contract negotiations for both of their top right-side d-men. At 6’4, he pairs nicely with Mikkola with a more offensive touch to his game. They were fantastic together during the postseason, and Jones was at his best on the second pairing. He did play time with Forsling when Ekblad wasn’t available, but it was clear that he played better with Mikkola. Seth didn’t go to the Four Nations tournament, but he has received an invitation to Team USA’s Orientation Camp for the Olympics. I think he has the potential to make the roster, but USA depth at the position makes it a bit harder to predict if he will make the final cut. If he does make the roster and Ekblad makes Canada’s, then Florida’s entire top four defensemen will be going to the Olympics next season. While that’s a fantastic achievement for them all, and for all the players who will likely go, it poses the same question that having 8 players go to the Four Nations did: Will everyone return healthy? In the case of the Four Nations, the answer to that question was no, and Tkachuk missed two months of last season, an offseason surgery, and won’t be back in the lineup until sometime in 2026.