Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight with readers each Wednesday. This week profiles a defenseman who after playing for two NHL teams found a home with the Florida Panthers and has twice sipped Stanley Cup champagne, and recalls a similar reclamation 75 years ago.
Make no mistake, Mikkola is not a Finland-based soft drink.
Nor is it a Scandinavian nickname for Michael.
Ah, but when you add Niko and it becomes Niko Mikkola, you have one of the best, low-key stories still emerging from the Florida Panthers.
Mikkola is not a headline-grabber for the two-time Stanley Cup champions, at least not yet, but "The Condor" is being appreciated for his size (6-foot-6, 204 pounds), talent and personality.
Curiously, this was not the case for the 29-year-old defenseman at either of his previous NHL stops, but those in South Florida love him just as he flies right now.
"I call him 'Condor,'" Panthers coach Paul Maurice said during the Eastern Conference Final. "More of a scavenger though than a bird of prey is my understanding.
"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."
Mikkola was selected by the St. Louis Blues in the fifth round (No. 127) of the 2015 NHL Draft. He was promoted for a five-game cup of coffee in 2019-20, but it was a decaf experience.
After three full seasons in St. Louis, Mikkola was traded to the New York Rangers with Vladimir Tarasenko on Feb. 9, 2023, for Sammy Blais, Hunter Skinner, a conditional first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft and a fourth-round selection in the 2024 NHL Draft. Mikkola became a free agent after the season, and it caught the attention of Panthers general manager Bill Zito that he was no longer a protected species.
Mikkola signed a three-year contract with the Panthers on July 1, 2023. They won the Stanley Cup for the first time with a 2-1 victory against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final.
"Niko is one of those guys who impacts a game a lot more than he gets credit for -- a lot more than what shows up on a stat sheet," Panthers forward Brad Marchand said. "Just a force for our team.
"It's not often that a guy with Niko's size 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."
He confounds his coach when it comes to describing a pet condor.
"Niko is just a fun guy, but hyperintense during the game," Maurice said, "and he comes back to the bench, and nobody knows what he's saying, not even the Finnish guys."
Slowly, and ever-so-relentlessly, the Florida media said plenty about Mikkola's potential. He had 22 points (six goals, six assists) in 76 regular-season games last season. The Condor's clutch offense then found a nest in Game 3 of the conference final against the Carolina Hurricanes. Mikkola scored two goals, the second the game-winner, in a 6-2 victory at Amerant Bank Arena, giving the Panthers a 3-0 lead in the best-of-7 series en route to a 4-1 triumph.
"The management has been great here," Mikkola said. "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."
Maurice credited the Panthers scouts for picking up on Mikkola's hockey IQ and how his game continued to develop. He's emerged as one of those players difficult to play against, similar to what was said 75 years ago about Leo Reise, Jr. The son of Leo Reise, an eight-season NHL veteran from 1921 to 1930, was traded to the Detroit Red Wings by the Chicago Black Hawks on Dec. 9, 1946, and helped Detroit win the Cup in 1950 and '52.
Like Mikkola, Reise evolved from a castaway to a hero.
"As a teammate, Leo was a strong defenseman who hit real hard," late Red Wings icon Gordie Howe told me during a visit to New Jersey. "Few noticed Reise until the (1950) playoffs (against the Toronto Maple Leafs). He scored two overtime goals in the series and Detroit went on to win the Cup."
Reise's second OT goal won Game 7 of the 1950 NHL Semifinals, and the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup with a seven-game victory against the Rangers in the Final. After Reise died at 93 on July 26, 2015, a reporter for the Hamilton Spectator asked his wife, Geraldine, about her husband's NHL career. All she could think of was, "Leo never bragged about anything."
The way Mikkola has been flying for Florida, a bit of bragging would not be out of order, whether you're a bird watcher who likes condors or not.
NHL.com Editor-in-Chief Bill Price contributed to this report
