Florida Panthers prospect leaves his stamp vs Carolina

Balinskis just got rewarded with a two-year extension that runs through 2027-28, and it comes in at a tidy $875,000 cap hit. That's the kind of deal contenders need, quiet value that keeps your bottom pairs from melting.

He's a left shot who doesn't chase hits for clips, he just closes space and moves pucks. When Florida is missing bodies, that steady third-pair feel turns into real minutes fast.

Then on Friday against the Carolina Hurricanes, the timing got perfect in a very Panthers way. Balinskis buried a goal early in the second period, with assists from Mackie Samoskevich and Vilmanis, giving the rookie his first NHL point.

Vilmanis is 21, a fifth-round pick, 157th overall in 2022, and he's been forcing the issue for months. He arrived with 19 points in 31 AHL games this season, and you can see the confidence in how he holds pucks under pressure.

The clip hit because it wasn't just a goal, it was a little story about how this team runs. Florida talks about internal competition all the time, and this is what it looks like when the room backs it up.

As a fan, I love this stuff, because it feels earned, not staged, and the bench reaction always tells the truth.

From a hockey standpoint, that point matters for Vilmanis more than the boxscore line. Once you get one, the game slows down, and you stop playing like you're afraid of being the mistake.

For Balinskis, scoring right after the ink is a reminder that depth players still swing nights in January. Florida doesn't need him to be a star, it needs him to be dependable when the schedule gets mean.

Now the next milestone is simple, can Vilmanis keep the same poise shift after shift, even when the matchups tighten.