Not enough people are talking about this... (But they will be)

Not enough people are talking about this, but they will. Florida Panthers prospects, the pool is deeper than people think. And they're not talking about the bigger names that we could see on the ice at the NHL level this year. Young guys, big names, will we see them come up? Will one of them see the light of day on the opening day roster or not? We're also going to talk about another guy who no one is really putting their two thoughts in on. You might not know the name, but you will after today's episode. We're also going to take a look at the draft picks that we did have. And like I said, yes, we might have gotten rid of our first round picks this year for Brady Kachuck. But we still have prospects. There is still a future for this organization. It is about winning Stanley Cups now and for the next four, five seasons. But we can still look beyond that. Sorry to scrape my microphone. Sorry guys, but we can still look to the future. There is still light at the end of the tunnel. Guys, thank you for joining me on this episode of Panthers Digest. I'm your host, Greg Andrews. Comment, like, share, subscribe, hype up this video. Appreciate everybody supporting me in the 70% who are tuning in and not subscribed. Hit the button down below. I would appreciate you guys supporting me and helping me reach 5,000 subscribers. Let's keep this channel growing. Appreciate you guys. Every single one of you. And comment down below, let me know, is there a prospect out there that probably nobody talks about that's in the Panthers organization, in their prospect areas, in one of the AHL, ECHL, WHL, one of our affiliates, one of the lower leagues. Is there someone out there that we should really have our eye on, let's call it, for the next three years? Maybe see this guy come up. Let me know. Put a comment down below. Anyways, guys, let's dive headfirst into this thing. We are going to talk about none other, you guys know who the guy is, Sandus Vilmanis. I'm excited to talk about him because the way that he played at Worlds, come on, there we go. Sorry, this whole thing is a little bit slow and a little bit weird. I don't know why it's not really working. There we go. My apologies. Sandus Vilmanis, we all know how he played at Worlds. That's why he earned a two-year extension. Will we see him on the opening day roster? I don't know. Right now, it's Gajevic, Eller, and Hathaway that will be on that fourth line projected right now. But we could see him. There is still the possibility of Vilmanis breaking into that opening day roster. Is it definitive? No. Has he earned the right to be on that fourth line on opening day? Absolutely. Nineteen games last year? Yeah, I know, the numbers don't jump off the page. When he got the call last season, he came up and looked comfortable, not game number one, but by game number three or four, he looked like he started finding his bearings. He was using his size, his high hockey IQ. He was doing what he needed to do to show the coaching staff and the organization, I'm ready to play at the NHL level. I would say this, he did a better job than Jack Devine when Jack Devine got the call up earlier in the season. Jack Devine looked a little more like a deer in the headlights in his first three or four games. He kind of started looking a little bit better, but Vilmanis still had, I think, the better showing. His size, scrapping for pucks, good defensive forward, and there's going to be a ton of offensive upside, I think, once he starts getting a little more confident. Not afraid to shoot the puck, not afraid to pass the puck to his teammates in those kind of tight window spots. Good on the forward check as well, we know that, we know how he plays, I don't need to say any more. And he was great for Team Latvia this summer at Worlds. His numbers, right here, take a look at this. You can see the improvement, I don't really need to say a whole lot more about him. I hope he makes the opening day roster, I think he's deserved it. Awesome numbers, what a huge improvement from the AHL checkers from the 24-25 season to the 25-26 season. Massive improvement. The kid is getting better, I think you give him a shot. If any one of our prospects sees more, I would say, 30-plus games this season, it will be him. Maybe he pulls a Mackie Samiskevic this year, and he ends up playing 60-plus games. Who knows? I do think he's going to be a bright star for this organization for the long-time future. I hope he is, I really do. But I really love the way that he plays. And he's going to be playing. But let me know what you think down below. Do you think he should be on the opening day roster, or should we stick with Gajevic, Hathaway, and Ellen? Let me know what you guys think. I think he should be, I think he's earned it. I think this kid's earned it. Anyways, before we get into the rest of this stuff, guys, I've got to let you know this episode is brought to you by PrizePix. It's America's number one sports pick app in the country. The best way to get in on all the action. Download it in the description below. Put the code Digest in. It helps out the channel a ton. And new users get $50 instantly in your lineup when you play your first five bucks. All right. So, on to the next guy. Well, who is it? It's going to be Jack Devon. Little bit of a disappointment in the six games that he played. No goals. No assists. I thought we might see an assist or two. But we got nothing. Minus three rating when he was on the ice. I know it was earlier in the season. A little bit tougher. You know, I mean, I don't know. Paul Maurice speaks really highly of him. Great hockey IQ. Good skater. Obviously, his numbers on paper are great over the years. His tenure at the University of Denver, winning a national title. I think he won two of them. I mean, his numbers are great. Look at that. 31 points. Then 56. Then 57. He has been solid. He has been very reliable when he was in college. But it's different when you get to the AHL level and the NHL level. I thought he was going to be the first guy to be ready. He's our highest paid two-way player. I think just around a million bucks. Or a little bit more than a million dollars a year. Now, his numbers were good at the Charlotte Checkers level last year. 43 points. 18 goals, 25 assists. But Vilmanis had similar type numbers. He had a little bit better right around there. I can't remember what I just showed you on there. And just 48 games. So, Vilmanis, to me, has shown that he is NHL ready. We saw it at the end of the year last year with the 19 games he played. I think Jack Devine still is a little bit more of a work in progress. But will we see him at the NHL level this year? Absolutely. His number is going to get called. That fourth line is going to be interesting to see this, though. Will he get the call-up and be on that fourth line with Vilmanis? Will Eller get a little bit of a rest? And will we see a Hathaway-Devine-Vilmanis fourth line? It's possible. Sorry, you have to excuse me. My son is still recovering from his tonsillectomy. He's playing on his iPad behind me. So, will we see that happen? I think it would be super interesting to see that. Because I know at the AHL level, I think they've played on the same line. And it would be really interesting to see those two guys at the NHL level. But I think they do need the experience. I think if the coaching staff would let it happen, if guys need a rest, or if there's a minor injury to somebody on the fourth line, you get the call-up. These young guys need to get the NHL experience. They really do. We're just going to keep getting older. We've got to start relying on some of these younger prospects that we think could be NHL-ready. Vilmanis is number one. I'd say Jack Devine is number two. I'm not going to say 1B. It's not 1A, 1B. There's a clear differentiation between the two. Vilmanis is one. Devine is number two. I think he still has a lot more to prove, especially after the six games he played last year, which to me didn't look comfortable on the ice. He didn't. He looked a little more deer in the headlights, kind of like afraid to get hit, afraid to dish out the hits. Tried to make some plays, though. I'm not going to take that away from him. He tried to find his teammates. He's a good passer. He's a very good skater. Overall, I love him as a player. I really like him a lot. I really do. But there was just something in those six games last year I was like, man, just kind of looks a little shaky out there. Hopefully that is going to be gone, and he's going to say, you know what? I'm ready to go. Give me the call up. I'm going to go kick some ass this year. So we'll see what happens. And here is the guy I'm telling you you might not know who he is. All right? Arvid Draht, 18 years old, speedster. One of the things that is kind of a question mark with this kid, he's a phenomenal skater, not afraid to shoot the puck from anywhere, very good in the defensive front, and can definitely 100% create a lot of turnovers. And when he gets going with the puck, when he creates a turnover, you're not catching him. He's got a good shot. Like I said, great skater, really fast, 18 years old. But some people are saying the door is kind of closing a little bit in terms of him moving up the lines, starting to move up the ranks, because he's not doing enough offensively. If you look at the numbers here, you think there'd be a little bit more production, especially with the speed that he has. But people are saying the door is kind of closing for him to make his way up the ranks in terms of improving his line and then going to the next level. I believe he's WHL this next year, so we'll see how this next season, so we'll see how that plays out for him. So this could be a make or break season for him in terms of, okay, is going to be a bottom six guy, or is he going to be one of those guys that takes the step forward and says, all right, I can be on the first or second line. And that's what we need from this kid. Love him. I watched some of the video out there. I was trying to put something together, but there's not a whole lot. And it's kind of footage is kind of hard to get your hands on. And for me to use here, not that easy, but I like him a lot. Speedster, lots of talent, bright future ahead. He could be one of those diamonds in the rough that we found late in the draft. So in the 2025 draft, you can see here, guys, number 192 in the round number six that we picked him in the NHL entry draft. So talent is there. Great skating. Speedy kid can pass the puck. Good defensive forward. But again, I mean, could we see him at the NHL level? Yeah, not this year, obviously, but he's got to make some improvements. Diamond in the rough. We need a speedster. We're not the fastest team out there. Could we see something in two or three years? Absolutely. If this kid's 21 around there, 20, 21 years old, and we see him improving and working his way up the ranks, making his way into the ECHL and the AHL, if we're able to see that improvement, can we see him make it into the NHL? Yes. Look up the name Arvid Draht. You guys will not be disappointed. And then if we take a look at all of our draft picks from this past year, that was from the previous draft, I've already talked about Ignatovicius. Love him. Callie talked about him. Kemps, I've already talked about him, too. Our last three picks, the one I'm really excited about is Danone. Six-foot-eight. I believe he's only 18 years old. Goaltender. I love that pick because I don't care that we picked him so late in the draft. With Luongo and our goaltending camp, I've already talked about this. That's why I'm not worried about Markstrom. We have such phenomenal coaching when it comes to our goaltenders, especially developmentally. We have a great crew of coaches at every level to develop goaltending talent. And we've got Cooper Black, Garasamyuk, who are waiting in the wings to see what's going to happen. If Cooper Black has a great season at the AHL level, I wouldn't be surprised if we see him maybe get the call-up later in the season just to get a little taste of the NHL. Could we see it? Absolutely. I think Cooper Black would get the call-up. Maybe Garasamyuk does if he has a good season as well. We'll see. But I'm excited about this. All of these draft prospects could have a lot of potential. I think Ignatovicius has probably the most potential to start off in the next two or three seasons to make his move. A lot of these guys are going to be playing at the collegiate level. A lot remains to be seen. But tell me what you think about our draft class from this past season as well as Vilmanis, Devine, and Drott. Let me know what you think about all these guys. Do some more research on it. I didn't want to make this super long. I'm already going over what I wanted to do. But in terms of the depth right now that we're talking about at our depth chart notables for our prospects, this is pretty much the line of guy who's going to see NHL, ice time first, not necessarily the season, but sooner than later. And how deep are we? We're good at left wing center, right wing, left defenseman. But here's where it gets a little tricky. We have nobody for our right defenseman. We just had Ludwig Janssen. That's it. That's a problem. And we have a pretty decent goaltending there, as you can see. Kirill Graslanyuk is, I think, going to be one of our guys that we could see as a star as he comes up the ranks. But I'll go back one more time for you guys to kind of see here. Obviously, Vilmanis, Linus Eriksson, Matvei Shurivan, Simas Ignatovicius, you don't see, like I said, the crazy thing is you actually do not see Jack Devine here. I mean, he is there, but he's deep in that right wing slot because it's just, I don't know. I just don't feel comfortable with what I saw last year. I know everybody speaks very highly of him, but after seeing him on the ice, I'm just kind of like, he's got all the talent, but he just looked scared. He was holding back. I mean, that's your shot, man, to shine. That's for you to put everything you got on the ice and prove to the organization, hey, I deserve to be here. And he didn't look like he deserved to be there. He had some bad turnovers. I remember. I remember the six games. I was like, oh, man. But, hey, I still think we can see him this season. I think they should give him a shot. He needs to get some more exposure at the NHL level, but when will it happen? Will it happen at all? But Vilminus, 100%, you're going to see him this year. But who else? Is there anybody else you guys could see making it to the NHL level and getting the taste, having their number called, even if it's just for four games, five games? Do you think there are more than just Vilminus and Devine that are out there that could see NHL action this? Anyways, guys, let's get to the end of this. I'm going to make my picks from prize picks. First off, we have a big game today. It is the final. Spain, Argentina, Yamal, Messi. They're going to be going at it right now. They have Lamine Yamal with half a shot on target. Yes, against France, he had zero. I think he will have a shot on target. So I'm going to say more than a half a shot. I think we're going to see him do a little more, especially with Messi on the field. We all saw the picture of Messi bathing him when he was a baby. I think he's going to be out there, and he's going to be so excited to be playing on the same field as Messi. It's going to be awesome to see. And then, obviously, I've got to talk about Messi. Half of a goal. I think he's going to come out. He's going to want to lead this team. He's not going to say, I'm just going to sit back and let my team do this and just go for the assists and set guys up. He's going to want to get a goal in this one. He hasn't had a goal in two games. I think he gets one here. More than half a goal. Lionel Messi's going to come out. He's going to put this team on his back. I'm not going to say that they're definitively going to win. I think this one does go to P.K.'s, and it's going to be interesting because he's not done very well with P.K.'s in this tournament. But I'm just going to say, leave it at that. It's going to come down to P.K.'s. I'm not going to pick a winner in this, but I'm going to say Lionel Messi will have a goal, so more than half a goal. So that's it for this episode of Panther's Digest, guys. Let me know what you think down below with our prospects, the players I have talked about, our draft class, all of that. Who do you think is going to be, besides Vilmanis, seeing some ice time this year? Are there any other players out there that we should probably take a look at that we might not know of that could see ice time in the next three years, maybe even get a spot on that opening day roster in the next three years? Is there a player out there you think has a ton of talent and is going to work their butts off and make it to the NHL level in the next three seasons? Thank you guys again. Appreciate all of you. Enjoy the game today. Go Cats.