Last February, Sergei Bobrovsky played in his 500th NHL game. He later got hurt, and then Covid-19 shut down the season. On Saturday night, the Panthers will salute the milestone before their game against the Blue Jackets.

Bobrovsky, of course, played most of those 500 games with Columbus.

In seven seasons, he played 374 games with the Blue Jackets leading them to the playoffs four times and winning the Vezina Trophy twice.

The Panthers have been waiting for the right time to honor Bobrovsky and, Columbus’ first visit of the season seems just about perfect.

When Bobrovsky beat the Jackets 4-2 at Nationwide Arena last month, he said facing Columbus continues to mean something.

”It was fun, definitely fun to be back and play against the Jackets,” Bobrovsky said. “They have a good team. I respect those guys, the organization a lot. … Seven years, I spent a lot of time here. A piece of my heart is still here.”

Bobrovsky, over the course of 11 NHL seasons with Philadelphia, Columbus and Florida, has played in 528 games which is 69th all-time among goalies.

The team plans to have a pregame ceremony before Saturday’s games. Playing in 500 games, for a goalie, is compared to a positional player getting No. 1,000.

Only three goalies in NHL history — Roberto Luongo is one of them — have ever played in 1,000 games.

Bobrovsky is expected to start Saturday’s game after Chris Driedger made 25 saves in Thursday’s 3-2 overtime win against Detroit.

It was Florida’s fourth consecutive win which has pulled it into a tie with Tampa Bay atop not only the Central Division standings but the entire league.

This will be the fifth of eight meetings against Columbus with the Panthers winning three of the first four.

Florida is getting two of its top players back as well.

Joel Quenneville said Saturday morning that both Sasha Barkov and Patric Hornqvist will return to the lineup.

Both had missed time with undisclosed lower-body injuries. Barkov missed the past six games, Hornqvist five.

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Both Matt Kiersted and Spencer Knight were at Saturday’s optional morning skate at BB&T Center with Quenneville saying Kiersted would be in the lineup on Saturday.

Kiersted signed with Florida on Thursday as a collegiate free agent who had gone undrafted but evolved into an All-American defenseman at North Dakota.

Quenneville said the Panthers would find a way to get Knight into a game as well moving forward. Both players ended their collegiate careers last weekend in the NCAA regional finals.

HINOSTROZA TRADED

Vinnie Hinostroza is headed back to Chicago as the Panthers traded the lightly-used forward to the Blackhawks for center Brad Morrison.

Morrison, 24, has played six games for AHL Rockford this season as well as three games for the ECHL Indy Fuel. It is thought he will be assigned to the shared AHL team in Syracuse as Florida cleared a roster spot which Kiersted took Saturday.

Hinostroza signed a one-year deal during the offseason but struggled to get into the lineup. Hinostroza only played in nine games with the Panthers and had no points.

Columbus Blue Jackets at Florida Panthers

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINES

FLORIDA FORWARDS

19 Mason Marchment — 16 Sasha Barkov — 23 Carter Verhaeghe

11 Jonathan Huberdeau — 21 Alex Wennberg — 70 Patric Hornqvist

77 Frank Vatrano — 55 Noel Acciari — 74 Owen Tippett

83 Juho Lammikko — 27 Eetu Luostarinen

FLORIDA DEFENSEMEN

42 Gus Forsling — 52 MacKenzie Weegar

3 Keith Yandle — 7 Radko Gudas

65 Markus Nutivaara — 61 Riley Stillman

8 Matt Kiersted

FLORIDA GOALIES

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

60 Chris Driedger

Scratches: F Ryan Lomberg, F Brett Connolly, D Anton Stralman

Injured: F Anthony Duclair (shoulder); D Aaron Ekblad (left leg)

Taxi squad: D Kevin Connauton, F Aleksi Heponiemi, D Brady Keeper, G Spencer Knight, G Philippe Desrosiers

Traded: F Vinnie Hinostroza (Chicago)

Florida power play (29/121 24% — 9th in NHL)

Florida penalty kill (91/113 80.5% — 12th in NHL)

PP1: Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Patric Hornqvist, Frank Vatrano, Keith Yandle

PP2: Alex Wennberg, Noel Acciari, Mason Marchment, Carter Verhaeghe, Gustav Forsling

PROJECTED COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS LINES

COLUMBUS FORWARDS

29 Patrik Laine — 16 Max Domi — 20 Riley Nash

28 Oliver Bjorkstrand — 42 Alexandre Texier — 13 Cam Atkinson

38 Boone Jenner — 71 Nick Foligno — 11 Kevin Stenlund

19 Liam Foudy — 26 Zac Dalpe — 50 Eric Robinson

COLUMBUS DEFENSEMEN

8 Zach Werenski — 3 Seth Jones

44 Vladislav Gavrikov — 58 David Savard

43 Mikko Lehtonen — 46 Dean Kukan

COLUMBUS GOALIES

70 Joonas Korpisalo

90 Elvis Merzlikins

Columbus power play (13/88 14.8% — 26th in NHL)

Columbus penalty kill (66/87 75.9% — 25th in NHL)

PP1: Nick Foligno, Eric Robinson, Cam Atkinson, Patrik Laine, Zach Werenski

PP2: Boone Jenner, Riley Nash, Max Domi, Seth Jones, Oliver Bjorkstrand