The Florida Panthers have placed forward MacKenzie Entwistle on waivers, a procedural move that points toward another season in the American Hockey League rather than a sudden opening on the NHL roster.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported the placement on Wednesday. Entwistle had already been designated injured and non-roster before the season after suffering an undisclosed injury in the preseason, so the waiver notice arrives while he is still working his way back rather than while he is competing for a job in camp.
Entwistle is 27 and is entering his third year inside the Panthers organization.
Chicago selected him in the third round and kept him through the early part of his professional career, but the Blackhawks declined to tender him a qualifying offer after 2023-24.
He then signed with Florida as an unrestricted free agent on a one-year, two-way deal.
An injury-heavy 2024-25 followed, yet the Panthers still brought him back on a two-year contract worth $1.63 million, carrying an average annual value of $812,500.
That deal keeps him under contract through next season even if the organization never finds a regular place for him in Sunrise.
The gap between that commitment and his actual usage has been wide. Across his time with Florida, Entwistle has appeared only for the Charlotte Checkers. In 56 AHL games he has six goals and 13 points and a plus-9 rating.
Those numbers are modest for a player the parent club has kept on the books, and they have not been enough to force a call-up. It is somewhat surprising that he never reached the NHL last year, when Florida absorbed its share of injuries, but the club consistently filled those holes without him.
His earlier résumé is more substantial. Entwistle played 193 NHL games, all of them with Chicago, and produced 15 goals and 35 points.
He averaged 11 minutes and 12 seconds a night in a bottom-six role and finished that stretch at minus-55, a figure that reflects both his own limited offense and the Blackhawks’ broader struggles during those seasons. He knows the league. He has not, however, been asked to play in it since changing organizations.
Clearing waivers would allow Florida to assign him to Charlotte once he is healthy, which is the outcome the placement is designed to protect. Nothing in the recent pattern suggests a late change of plans.
The Panthers did not need him when the roster was thin last season, and a preseason injury has only pushed him further from the opening-night group.
Barring an unexpected run of absences up front, Entwistle is lined up for another full year in the AHL, useful as organizational depth and still waiting on an NHL chance that has not arrived in Florida.
