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Florida Panthers Ready to Play for Real. Updating the Opening Roster

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6 months ago

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Florida Panthers rookie Patrick Giles, here being celebrated after scoring a preseason goal, appears to have made the Opening Night roster and could be on the fourth line Tuesday night against Boston. // Roger Lee Photographer (561) 866-2000

The Florida Panthers are done with training camp.

They are done with preseason games.

Now comes the good stuff.

The Panthers officially begin their defense of the Stanley Cup on Monday when they report to their first practice of the regular season.

Later that night, the Panthers will gather in Sunrise and receive their Stanley Cup championship rings with a lot of their fans joining the party.

Tuesday comes the opener against the Boston Bruins — and the raising of the biggest banner in the barn.

Saturday night, the Panthers closed the preseason with a 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings in Quebec City.

With only a couple of exceptions, Paul Maurice’s opening night roster appears to be set.

Let’s take a look at how the Florida Panthers could lineup come Tuesday in Sunrise: ⬇️⬇️

Forwards (14)

Carter Verhaeghe — Sasha Barkov — Sam Reinhart

Evan Rodrigues — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Mackie Samoskevich

A.J. Greer — Jesper Boqvist — Patrick Giles

Extras: Jonah Gadjovich, Sandis Vilmanis

Injured: Tomas Nosek

The question here is not whether Giles makes the team. It appears he has done just that.

It is whether Florida places Nosek on injured reserve in order to keep Vilmanis on the team.

Both Giles and Vilmanis have been the pleasant surprises of camp.

Giles, an undrafted player out of Boston College, and Vilmanis (a fifth-round pick) have exceeded outside expectations and could end up playing a meaty role on the defending Stanley Cup champs.

The case for Giles is, with his size and experience, he is probably more suited for a fourth-line role than the 20-year-old Vilmanis is.

Florida would like to see him play up in the lineup and, barring injury, there is not any room not with Samoskevich working in on the third line.

Samoskevich has missed most of training camp, but was on the third line for Saturday’s preseason finale and looks ready to play in the opener on Tuesday.

Maurice had a lot of good things to say about him, too.

Vilmanis has yet to make his professional debut after playing in the Canadian junior leagues last season.

Florida can send him to Charlotte without going through waivers — which also means they can bring him up whenever they want.

If Vilmanis does get sent down today, it is based on numbers as well as a desire to get him some serious minutes in Charlotte and not sit in the press box watching as a healthy scratch most nights.

Both Giles and Vilmanis are waiver-exempt, so whether or not they make they opening roster, they’re going to have to earn their keep.

As far as who plays on that fourth line, well, Gadjovich is going to get his chances — perhaps in the opener as Florida could use some of what he brings in a game that should be intense.

Injuries to Justin Sourdif and Mackenzie Entwistle slowed their chances to make the Panthers, at least out of training camp. Will Lockwood cleared waivers on Saturday and will start at Charlotte.

Defensemen (7)

Gus Forsling — Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola — Adam Boqvist

Uvis Balinskis — Dmitry Kulikov

Extra: Nate Schmidt

We list Schmidt as an extra, but based on how the Panthers ran things the final days of training camp, it appears that entire third pairing could rotate at least early on.

So, if Balinskis and Kulikov start on Opening Night, do not be surprised to see one of them sit for Schmidt on Thursday in Ottawa.

And on and on it could go — until someone takes hold of the spot as Kulikov and his superb work on the penalty kill did last season.

Balinskis was terrific in training camp after impressing the Panthers with his play here and in Charlotte last season. He has also been running their second power play unit.

In hindsight, Florida came to camp with its seven-man blueline and nothing changed.

Matt Kiersted made it, again, until the final round of cuts.

It would have been hard to beat out Schmidt or Balinskis. Kiersted was placed on waivers Saturday and could get claimed today. We’ll see.

Goalies (2)

Sergei Bobrovsky, Spencer Knight

No. 3: Chris Driedger

Florida’s goalie tandem went as we thought it would with Driedger coming in and playing extremely well.

After a deep run with Seattle’s AHL team last season — Coachella Valley made it to the Calder Cup Final with Driedger in net — and a very affordable contract, Driedger may not make it to Charlotte.

It is expected that Driedger hits the waiver wire today, although the Panthers could hedge their bets and send Vilmanis down in order to keep Driedger away from waivers.

UPDATE: Driedger was NOT put on waivers on Sunday.

That does not mean Knight is not the backup, it just means the Panthers are not ready to lose Driedger just yet — or could be working on a trade.

Charlotte signed veteran goalie Keith Kinkaid to an AHL deal last week so, if Driedger stayed in South Florida a few more days, the Checkers have things handled at least for now.

GAME 1 ON DECK
BOSTON BRUINS @ FLORIDA PANTHERS

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