With both Sergei Bobrovsky and Daniil Tarasov as unrestricted free agents, the Florida Panthers were loading up as a super team without a goalie tandem, or a goalie at all. That changed late on Monday night as the Panthers acquired Vegas Golden Knights netminder Akira Schmid for a third-round pick in the 2028 Draft. Schmid is an RFA, so he needs a new contract, and Vegas has both Adin Hill and Carter Hart under contract for next season. Vegas trading him away, and Florida trading for him, makes sense.

Over the last four seasons, Schmid has a .903 save percentage across 61 starts (76 games played). Among the 68 goalies with at least 60 starts in that span, he is tied for 24^th by that measure. He turned 26 years old in May.  

Let's break it down.

What Florida Gets

Assuming the Panthers sign Schmid, they get an unproven goalie. He has never had a season with 30 starts nor 40 games played, so whether he can handle a starting workload is a fair question. He has also been inconsistent as his four seasons have alternated between save percentages over .920 and under .895. There is also a lot of variation in his games played in those seasons, being as low as five appearances in 2024-25 and as high as 34 in 2025-26. The Panthers need another goalie, and it is likely they get one with some experience as a starter because they have Stanley Cup-or-bust aspirations and having such an unproven goalie is a big gamble.

When evaluating what Schmid has done, one thing that stuck out is his Goals Saved Above Expected per 100 Shots Against over the last four years (from Evolving Hockey). It is solid overall, but when considering just 5-on-5 play, his 1.34 GSAx/100 shots is 10^th among 67 goalies who've skated at least 3000 minutes, and in some good company:

The area Schmid lost a lot of his value was on the penalty kill, but that is good news for his fantasy upside. In 2025-26, a season that saw them with a slew of key injuries, the Panthers ranked 2^nd by shots against per 60 minutes at 4-on-5, and 8^th by goals against. They have the same rankings when looking at the last two seasons, so Schmid is going to a team that has a very good PK. If he holds his own at 5-on-5 as he typically has, and gets some better results on the PK behind a very good penalty-killing team, his ratios could improve significantly from where they were in 2025-26. Add that to playing behind a Panthers team that should have no problem scoring goals, giving him a chance to rack up a lot of wins, and Schmid has legitimate top-10 fantasy goalie upside in 2026-27.

In an era where few goalies make 60 starts anymore – only Karel Vejmelka reached that mark in 2025-26 – Schmid doesn't need to make 55 starts to have a lot of fantasy value. Last year, both Jesper Wallstedt (33 starts) and MacKenzie Blackwood (36 starts) were top-10 fantasy netminders, or fringe top-10, without playing half the season. We have to see whom the Panthers decide to add as their second goalie, but even if Schmid is the 1B in a split-start situation, if all goes well, it is enough to make him a top-10 fantasy goalie. If he proves himself capable of a heavier workload and gets to 50 starts, he can finish inside the top-5 at his position. But, as we saw last year, he could play poorly enough where he eventually gets stapled to the bench or sent to the press box. He is a high-risk, high-reward fantasy option and, depending on his average fantasy draft position in September, will likely be a favourite of late-round goalie drafters.