Florida Panthers claim Jonas Johansson, Spencer Knight to AHL?

The Florida Panthers put in a surprising waiver claim on Monday, taking Colorado Avalanche goalie Jonas Johansson. Does that mean rookie Spencer Knight will be headed to their AHL team in Charlotte?

With the Panthers putting captain Sasha Barkov back on the IR, the team has enough roster room to carry three goalies for the time being.

Carrying three goalies is not ideal.

Because Florida has to keep Johansson on the active roster — he could not go to Charlotte without going back through waivers as Colorado tried to do — it looks like Knight may be headed to the minors.

Just not right this second.

Florida had debated whether or not to send Knight to the AHL to develop but the 20-year-old was so impressive in his stint with the team at the end of last season that the decision was made to keep him with the NHL team.

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With the reemergence of Sergei Bobrovsky as the team starter, it appears the Panthers are ready to have him play the majority of their games moving forward and allow Knight to move to the AHL to get some serious playing time in with the Charlotte Checkers.

With Johansson expected to fly to South Florida on Tuesday, the Panthers will have three goalies on their roster — with Knight likely backing up Bobrovsky against the visiting Ottawa Senators.

Barkov’s IR is retroactive to last Tuesday’s loss in St. Louis (where he left that game in the third period with an apparent upper body injury) so he will not play against Ottawa. Barkov would be able to return off IR Thursday against visiting Los Angeles.

As for Johansson, he was placed on waivers Sunday before Florida played the Avs in Denver.

He played against the Panthers in October, allowing three goals on 37 shots in Florida’s 4-1 victory at FLA Live Arena.

The 26-year-old was a third-round draft pick by the Buffalo Sabres in 2015 and was traded to the Avalanche last season for a sixth round draft pick.

Johansson is 3-2-1 in six starts (nine appearances) for Colorado this season and was placed on waivers with the expectation he would report to the team’s AHL team.

In his nine games, Johansson has a save percentage of .880 and has a goals-against average of 3.89.

Per Adrian Dater of ColoradoHockeyNow: JoJo did some good things in his time with the Avs. He went 8-3-2, with respective saves percentages of .913 and .885.

He had two pretty bad games on the Avs’ last road trip that crushed his SP some, in Toronto and Ottawa. But, most of the time, he served as a competent backup, and it’s a good tribute to him that the Panthers took him.

FLORIDA PANTHERS ON DECK

OTTAWA SENATORS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS 

• WHEN: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
• WHERE: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise 
• TV/STREAMING: Bally Sports Florida
• RADIO: WQAM 560
• Last season: Did not play