Charlotte Checkers gain NHL experience as seven players make debuts

Mike Benning left Detroit with more than a memory. He scored his first two NHL goals in Florida’s 8-1 win over the Red Wings, and he was one of six Checkers sent back to Charlotte the next day after a run that showed how much the Panthers leaned on their AHL pipeline during an injury-filled stretch.

That return wave carried real weight for Charlotte. Benning, Wilmer Skoog, Marek Alscher, Ludvig Jansson and Mikulas Hovorka all appeared on the scoresheet in the win over Detroit, with Skoog, Alscher, Jansson and Hovorka each picking up an assist. Tobias Bjornfot also came back to Charlotte, and the group returned with the kind of NHL minutes that can change how a locker room looks once the calendar turns to April.

Seven different Checkers made NHL debuts over the course of the season: Jack Devine, Wilmer Skoog, Sandis Vilmanis, Mike Benning, Ludvig Jansson, Mikulas Hovorka and Marek Alscher. That is a major organizational marker for a club that has spent years trying to keep its AHL and NHL systems aligned. The Panthers and Checkers have been affiliated since 2020, and Charlotte coach Geordie Kinnear returned in 2021 after overseeing Panthers prospects in Syracuse during the Checkers’ 2020-21 opt-out season.

For Florida, the call-ups were about survival as much as development. As injuries piled up, Charlotte prospects were needed in a hurry, and they were asked to handle NHL pace while helping a team that had just completed its third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final. Alscher and Jansson were recalled on April 9 and were set to make their debuts in Ottawa that night, another sign of how quickly the Panthers trusted Charlotte’s young defenders.

The experience matters now because Charlotte is no longer building toward a season, it is trying to extend one. The Checkers finished the 2025-26 regular season 44-23-5-0, third in the Atlantic Division and third in the Eastern Conference, and opened the Calder Cup Playoffs against the Springfield Thunderbirds at Bojangles Coliseum. Charlotte also entered the postseason as the reigning Eastern Conference champions after reaching the 2025 Calder Cup Finals.

That makes the NHL detour more than a line on a transaction sheet. Jack Devine’s November recall after leading Charlotte in scoring early in the season showed the path was open. Benning’s breakout, Skoog’s return to a familiar locker room, and the defensive reps for Alscher, Jansson and Hovorka gave Charlotte something harder to measure than depth: a group that has now seen what playoff-level hockey looks like at both ends of the pipeline.