George Richards, FHN Publisher
With only 20 players on their roster due to salary cap issues, it was only a matter of time before the Florida Panthers would be forced to play down a skater.
That inevitability came in Game No. 3 on Monday night.
Defenseman Brandon Montour was ruled out of Florida’s game against the Boston Bruins and, without carrying an extra skater (or three) as the team is accustomed to, the Panthers went out there with 17 skaters.
The Panthers played the five defensemen they had as well as the 12 healthy forwards.
Then Aaron Ekblad got hurt midway through the second period and left the game leaving the Panthers with only four defensemen and down two skaters.
So, what comes next?
One thing we can be certain of is that the Panthers will not go into Wednesday’s home opener against the Philadelphia Flyers with only 16 skaters.
At least one player should be joining the team.
But with no space under the salary cap, how will general manager Bill Zito do it?
Regardless of whether Montour and/or Ekblad plays Wednesday, expect Florida to call up at least one defenseman from AHL Charlotte on an emergency basis.
Matt Kiersted has remained with the Panthers after being injured in the preseason and has been practicing with the team.
It is possible he could technically be returned to Charlotte and then recalled to the Panthers.
Lucas Carlsson was a cap casualty at the end of camp and may be called up as well.
Although the Panthers do not have any salary cap space, by playing down a player on Monday, they can now make an emergency call up and not have the replacement player’s salary count against the cap as long as he is making less than $850,000.
Florida does not have anyone in Charlotte making that kind of money so veteran Michael Del Zotto ($750,000 cap hit) is also a very real possibility.
And, if the injury is more long lasting, either Montour or Ekblad could be put on long-term injury reserve freeing up a big portion of their big cap hits.
Montour has a $3.5 million hit; Ekblad is at $7.5 million.
Obviously, Florida does not want to be without either player for an extended period of time but if one of them needed to go on LTIR, it would give the team a lot of temporary cap relief.
That would allow them to sign free agent Eric Staal and call up a defenseman — or two.
Of course, Montour’s injury is not thought to be anything serious and he could return to the lineup on Wednesday night.
Ekblad could play as well.
But the Panthers, by not playing Montour on Monday, can still recall at least one player.
“Obviously, we would like to travel with extra (players), we would like to have that luxury,” Zito told Steve Goldstein during the first intermission — before Ekblad was injured — on Monday.
“We don’t. So (Monday) we will have to play with 19. The CBA does offer us some (cap) relief should the injury be extended. There may be a scenario in which we can play with 20 in the future. We’ll see what happens.”
PANTHERS ON DECK
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS
- When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.
- Where: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise
- Tickets: CLICK HERE
- TV: TNT
- Radio: WKIS 99.9-FM 2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
- Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932
- Last season: Florida won 3-0
- All-time regular season series: Philadelphia leads 55-36-6, 7 ties