Mikkola finds ‘best option’ with Panthers, contributing to another run at Stanley Cup

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Niko Mikkola does plenty of talking on the Florida Panthers bench.

The defenseman said he’s sometimes talking to himself or is just trying to “get the boys going.”

“It's a game of a lot of emotion, so you try to manage that a little bit,” Mikkola told NHL.com last week. “But I also let it out if you need a life in the bench, and that's just my style. And I just, I just be myself.”

His teammates and coaches all hear him, too.

But there is one problem.

“He’s just a fun guy. Hyper intense during the game, and God, he comes back to the bench and nobody knows what he’s saying,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “Even the Finnish guys have no idea what he’s saying.”

They don’t need to. Mikkola’s play is speaking for itself.

Playing on the Panthers’ second defense pair with Seth Jones, the 29-year-old has been a big reason Florida is one win away from reaching the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight season.

Nicknamed “The Condor” for his size (6-foot-6, 204 pounds) and speed, Mikkola has four points (two goals, two assists) through the first three games of the Eastern Conference Final, including two goals in a 6-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 on Saturday.

It was the second multigoal game of Mikkola’s entire NHL career (the first coming on Nov. 20, 2023, against the Edmonton Oilers), which includes 328 regular-season games and 62 postseason games. His five points this postseason (three goals, two assists) are an NHL career high; he had four points (two goals, two assists) in 24 playoff games last year.

“He’s been really impressive for his size. He moves so well, he had a good stick, defensive stick, he plays the game the right way all the time,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said after Game 1. “He’s been great for us.”

Mikkola came to Florida as an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2023, 18 days after the Panthers fell short of winning the Stanley Cup in Game 5 of the Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Looking to add to a team that had come so close, general manager Bill Zito knew he wanted Mikkola because the defenseman had been on his radar for some time.

Before joining the Columbus Blue Jackets’ front office and eventually the Panthers, Zito ran Acme World Sports, a hockey agency, with partner Markus Lehto. It was Lehto who would talk to Zito about Mikkola, who was selected by the St. Louis Blues in the fifth round (No. 127) of the 2015 NHL Draft and made his NHL debut on Jan. 7, 2020. He was traded to the New York Rangers with Vladimir Tarasenko on Feb. 9, 2023, and became a UFA after that season.

“I didn't know him, but Markus was telling me this guy has the character, humility, in tandem with a compete tenacity to be just a wonderful teammate, and he’s been all that and more,” Zito told NHL.com last week. “He has a good sense of humor. He's gracious, he plays, he competes like a son of a gun. And then that same guy, like so many of our guys, away from the ice, is as kind and as thoughtful a teammate as you can imagine.”

And again, he’s funny, providing some levity in what is the grind of the NHL regular season and playoffs.

“I love 'Meeks'. He's a great teammate, very fun to be around. He doesn't take anything too serious, a guy you can laugh with,” forward Brad Marchand said. “He's one of those guys that impacts the game a lot more than what he gets credit for, a lot more than what shows up on the stat sheet. Just a force for our team.”

What first stands out about Mikkola is his hulking frame, an intimidating sight for any opposing forward. But watch him skate, watch him head up the ice, watch him move the puck, watch his offensive skill. He’s like a Mack truck with the grace of a swan.

A condor.

“It’s a bird of prey,” Maurice said. “More of a scavenger though than a bird of prey is my understanding. I don’t know where it comes from, everybody had five nicknames. I’m sure they have a bunch for me.

“He’s a big man that gets up the ice.”

A perfect example of what Mikkola brings to the table was on display in Game 1 of this year’s Eastern Final, a 5-2 win against the Hurricanes on May 20.

With Florida leading 2-1 early in the second period but Carolina having the momentum after scoring late in the first, Mikkola started and helped finish a play that turned the game on its end.

Collecting a loose puck behind his own net -- 200 feet from the Hurricanes net -- Mikkola made a pass to Jonah Gadjovich at the half-wall and immediately began flying up the ice. Gadjovich slid the puck to forward Tomas Nosek and before Carolina could blink, Nosek, Mikkola and forward A.J. Greer were in their zone on a 3-on-2. Nosek slid a slick backhand pass to Mikkola just over the blue line and he cut to the net, used his long stick to get the puck around Hurricanes defenseman Scott Morrow and slid it to Greer, who scored on a one-timer at 3:33 for a 3-1 lead.

“His straightaway speed is incredible,” Maurice said. “When we signed him, I talked to two coaches about him, and that was kind of a thing, you know, the kind of agility of the eyes. (His former teams) played completely different games than we played.

“And then he gets here and he’s up the ice all the time, and we enjoy that on the video the next day, showing his rush attempts. But it’s a straight line speed, it’s incredible.”

Maurice expanded a bit more after Game 2, when Mikkola had an assist, a shot on goal and a crushing hit on Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis in 22:29 of ice time.

“He is kind of prototypical for our game that we like on our blue line, and that is read as fast as you can and close as much ice as well,” Maurice said. “There are teams that are probably better defensively than we are. They give ice. They just play completely different styles of defense. When Vegas beat us (in the 2023 Stanley Cup Final), their back end gave ice all the way down and we played the exact opposite game. He’s really built to play in our system, and I think when he was with St. Louis and New York at the time, they were more of that give ice hockey.

“We play a fairly simple game and he’s got a really strong hockey IQ. Switch-off rates are very, very good. We don’t have a lot of them. (He’s) maybe a little bit like (Panthers center) Sam Bennett, the same concept to simplify the game a little bit.”

Maybe it’s simple for the Panthers, but it’s terrifying for opponents, said Marchand, who battled with Mikkola as a member of the Boston Bruins before being traded to Florida on March 7.

“I really did not like playing against him. He was really hard to play against, very physical and in your face,” Marchand said. “It's not often you get a guy with that size that can skate as well as he does. He closes extremely fast. Just playing against him he's always in your face, he's always right there, you don't have any time and space and he goes through you.”

* * *

The signing of Mikkola by the Panthers has not only been a perfect marriage of a big, fast, skilled defenseman and a team looking for help getting over the championship hurdle, it’s another example of a player making Florida better and vice versa.

“I think if you look back at the players who have come to our organization from other places, there certainly are exceptions, but he majority of those players have had their best seasons with us, typically measured by their statistics,” Zito said, “We had guys who were healthy scratches before they came, they came by us and went on to get big contracts moving on. We had guys who were in the American league, came here, played regularly, boom.

“So, I think that our room and our coaching staff have a unique ability to kind of get the most out of each other, and I do think that makes it, he's able to be himself. And he's supported by a system that really celebrates his strengths, right? His size, his reach, he's pretty mobile. We don't expect him to be Barkov, right? That's not what he is. That's OK. That's a big part of how we try to do it.”

When he became a free agent after the 2022-23 season, Mikkola had just gone through a whirlwind season where he was traded from the Blues to Rangers, lost in Game 7 of the first round with New York, and then was suddenly looking for another NHL home.

“It's just a part of the business. You kind of know when you have one year left on a deal with the Blues, and we didn't have the best success that year, so it was kind of like I might get traded or I might not,” Mikkola said. “But I was aware there might be a trade coming, and I got traded to New York. We had a good team over there. We didn’t get the result we wanted in the playoffs, so in the summer you just look your options, and I think the Florida was best option for me.”

You can say that again.

“First thing when I went into the locker room, it was very good, like very good guys,” Mikkola said. "Like, everybody welcomes you. And the management has been great here. And the playing style works for me. We’re pretty aggressive, that’s how I play my game. And I think as a team, we play a very aggressive game, so that’s working for me.”

The numbers don’t lie. Though his first four NHL seasons, Mikkola had 23 points (five goals, 18 assists) in 170 games for the Blues and Rangers. In just two seasons with Florida, he has 39 points (nine goals, 30 assists) in 158 games, including 22 (six goals, 16 assists) in 76 games this season.

Jones, who joined Florida prior to the NHL Trade Deadline on March 1, said playing with Mikkola has been “an absolute pleasure.”

“Great skater. Big, physical guy. In your face. Vocal on the bench,” the 12-year veteran said. “We're always talking, always trying to get better shift by shift. He's been great to play with. He's fast, he likes to jump into the play offensively, and he's a very intense guy.”

But that intensity sometimes brings levity on the Panthers bench because of his teammates’ inability to understand what he’s actually saying.

“His broken English when he’s fired up is truly awesome and we love it,” defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “I always find myself chuckling when he comes back to the bench and he’s yelling about something.”

Florida defenseman Gustav Forsling, who is from Sweden, said even he has issues understanding what Mikkola is talking about on the bench. But don’t worry, like his game over the past few seasons, Mikkola is working on getting better at that.

“I’ve been trying to learn some Swedish so maybe next year we’re going to have a better connection,” Mikkola said.

In the meantime, Mikkola has been a force in the postseason, his two goals in Game 3 marking a sort of a coming out party on the national stage. He never got the chance for his first career hat trick, leaving with an undisclosed injury at 8:02 of the third after he slid awkwardly into the end boards.

Maurice said Mikkola won't be available when Florida goes for the sweep and can advance to the Cup Final again with another victory in Game 4 on Monday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

“He’s found his place,” Maurice said. “That’s a guy, a credit to really how this team is built. Bill Zito and his staff, he asked us to watch a video of him when he was in St. Louis. So, before he even went to New York, they were on him. They do a really good job here, exceptional job of finding players that fit the way we play, and this, our game is built for him. He’s been great.”

NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen contributed to this report