Florida Panthers head to Europe for depth with two signings

The Florida Panthers have added to their organizational depth over the past few days signing Swedish defenseman Calle Sjalin on Friday and adding Finnish forward Anton Levtchi on Tuesday.

Levtchi is an intriguing signing as the 26-year-old was the leading scorer in Liiga last season playing for Tappara Tampere — the club Sasha Barkov grew up playing for and now holds an ownership stake in.

With Tampere this past season, Levtchi scored 26 goals with 61 points in 55 regular season games. His 26 goals tied for the league lead and his 35 assists ranked second.

Levtchi, the league’s MVP, then had 10 points with one goal in 14 playoff games as Tappara won the league championship.

Support independent coverage of the Florida Panthers all year long by subscribing to Florida Hockey Now today!

“Anton is one of the most potent scoring forwards in European hockey,” GM Bill Zito said in a statement announcing the one-year deal.

“He demonstrated his skill level during his outstanding campaign with Tappara this season and we look forward to him joining our organization.”

Levtchi, a native of Varkaus, Finland, has appeared in 252 career games with Tappara with 59 goals and 176 points. He was undrafted and has led Tappara in points in each of the last two seasons.

Sjalin signed a two-year, entry-level contract.

The 22-year-old defenseman played in 46 games with Leksands IF of the Swedish Hockey League last season and had a career-high six goals and 22 points.

Sjalin was originally selected by the New York Rangers in the fifth round (145th overall) of the 2017 NHL Draft.