This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Niko Mikkola
Florida Panthers Defense
6-6, 70 penalty minutes, and on-ice goals of 56-33 in a shutdown role.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | STL | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | +3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0.0 | 14:22 |
| 2020-21 | STL | 30 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -11 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 4.5 | 14:31 |
| 2021-22 | STL | 54 | 3 | 10 | 13 | -6 | 55 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 58 | 5.2 | 16:59 |
| 2022-23 | STL/NYR | 81 | 1 | 5 | 6 | +6 | 58 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 62 | 1.6 | 17:26 |
| 2023-24 | FLA | 82 | 3 | 14 | 17 | +11 | 69 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 93 | 3.2 | 20:02 |
| 2024-25 | FLA | 76 | 6 | 16 | 22 | +12 | 70 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 116 | 5.2 | 20:12 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 328 | 14 | 48 | 62 | +15 | 263 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 361 | 3.9 | 18:20 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
6 goals and 16 assists in 76 games for 22 points, plus-12, on 20:12 a night with 70 penalty minutes.
54.6 per cent at five-on-five, the 89th percentile, over 1,297 minutes. His on-ice goals were 56-33 against an expected 53.5-44.5, which is 11 goals of goaltending and finishing in his favour — one of the few Florida players the season treated well.
The Finesse Game
Modest. 116 shots and 6 goals with two-thirds from beyond 40 feet, and a first pass that is safe rather than quick.
16 assists at 20 minutes a night is a low return and it is not the job. He gets the puck to a forward and stops.
The Physical Game
6-6 and 204, and this is the case for him. He clears his crease by force, closes a rush with enormous reach, and is genuinely unpleasant to play against below the goal line.
70 penalty minutes over 76 games is a high total and part of the style. He is one of two men here who can defend the paint physically.
The Intangibles
A fifth-round pick, four organisations, a Cup, and a career built entirely on being large and willing.
At 29 the projection is unchanged: a genuinely good second-pair shutdown defenceman on a reasonable contract. With Barkov out, the defensive load on this pairing grows.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,297 minutes
- Expected goals
- 54.6%
- 89th pct
- Shot attempts
- 55.2%
- 92nd pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 56 for, 33 against. Expected: 53.5 and 44.5.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 31 points above where the report does. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 74 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2024-25 · 1297 minutes at five-on-five
- Nate Schmidtnow UTA21%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- FLA took 54.0% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 54.6% — 0.6 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- First pair, 1,297 minutes at five-on-five — 91st percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dmitry Kulikov | 53.3% | 56.2% | 49.4% |
| Sam Bennett | 55.6% | 54.1% | 52.0% |
| Carter Verhaeghe | 54.7% | 54.6% | 56.5% |
53.3% together, 56.2% for him apart and 49.4% for Kulikov apart. Kulikov was worse away from him while his own share held — the pairing was doing more for Kulikov than for him.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
172 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 6 of them goals. His median goal came from 39 feet. 10% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 67% from beyond forty.