Gustav Forsling doesn’t sound like a player easing into a new season. He sounds like someone who has already moved on from the preseason and is locked on what comes next.
The Florida Panthers defenseman has already used up his two-game preseason limit for veterans, and now his focus is squarely on Tuesday’s Season Opener in Raleigh. After Friday’s practice at Baptist Health IcePlex, Forsling described a session built around pace and skating, the kind of work he clearly enjoys.
“We've done the hardest work,” Forsling said after Friday’s practice at Baptist Health IcePlex. “Today was a quick, fast practice.
I think everyone pushed themselves, and we had a high tempo out there, a lot of skating. It was a lot of fun to speed things up."
That attitude fits Forsling perfectly. He’s one of the Panthers’ most dependable players, and he’s also one of the team’s most famously prepared ones. A repeated winner of the organization’s annual “most fit” award, Forsling has built a reputation as a defenseman who treats the gym like part of the job description.
This offseason gave him even more time to work. With Florida getting a longer-than-usual break after three straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final, including back-to-back championships in 2024 and 2025, Forsling made the most of it.
“You can push yourself a little harder,” Forsling said of how he adjusted his training. “You got a longer block, so you can space it out a little bit and get some rest in between too.
You don't have to push yourself too hard every week, but you can be a little smarter with your training. I feel like I was a little smarter.
You had a lot of time to get stronger and faster.”
That’s not exactly comforting for the rest of the league.
Now heading into his 10th NHL season, Forsling has built a reputation as one of the league’s toughest defensemen to handle, especially when it comes to making top-tier opponents look ordinary. Since the Panthers claimed him off waivers from the Carolina Hurricanes in January 2021, he has posted an expected goals for percentage above 50% at 5-on-5 in every season in Florida, including a career-best 56.75% in 2023-24.
He has also piled up a +161 plus/minus rating over those six Panthers seasons. Since 2020-21, only Colorado’s Devon Toews (+215) has a better mark among defensemen.
Florida coach Paul Maurice pointed to the skating and conditioning that make Forsling so hard to wear down.
“He is elite at closing gaps off the rush, his transition game” head coach Paul Maurice said of Forsling. “You watch that late in the game [on Tuesday at Carolina].
You saw it in overtime. He can just push at the end of games.
He can get into holes that other people can't because he's so fit. I think he's going to be able to maintain that for a lot of years in his career.
He's going to play until he doesn't want to play anymore because he's just such a strong skater and he maximizes his fitness every year.”
Forsling will again be working with Aaron Ekblad, the partner he has leaned on throughout the Panthers’ recent run of success. The two have served as Florida’s shutdown pair during both Stanley Cup runs, and their numbers together have been strong over the past three seasons.
Forsling and Ekblad have combined for a 55.36 CF% and a 54.67 GF% at 5-on-5 in that span. During Florida’s back-to-back Cup wins in 2024 and 2025, the Panthers outscored opponents 33-26 and outshot them 355-296 at 5-on-5 when the pair was on the ice together.
“We know exactly how our game works out there and it's so easy,” Forsling said of his chemistry with Ekblad. “Like you said, we’ve played so many games now together that we know where we are on the ice. We talk a lot on the ice, too, which is a big key."
Forsling, a native of Linkoping, Sweden, is only in the third year of the eight-year contract extension he signed with the Panthers in March 2024. Across 557 career games, he has collected 220 points, with 59 goals and 161 assists. In 84 playoff games, he has added 23 points, including eight goals and 23 assists.
And even with all that already on the resume, he still wants more.
“That’s the recipe,” Forsling said. “Keep pushing and getting better.”
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