George Richards, FHN Publisher
Bill Zito did not mean to turn the Florida Panthers into the Columbus Blue Jackets South, it just sort of worked out that way.
Tuesday night, the Panthers are scheduled to play in Columbus for the first time this season.
For two new members of the Panthers — not including Zito — it will be their first time inside Nationwide Arena since leaving the Blue Jackets.
Two others, goalie Sergei Bobrovsky and right wing Anthony Duclair, have already had their Columbus homecoming.
Alexander Wennberg will be in the Panthers’ lineup as center of the second line, a spot he’s been in since training camp opened.
Defenseman Markus Nutivaara, as of Sunday, has not been officially activated to the main roster after spending time on the COVD-19 protocol list, is expected to be with the team but it’s not known whether he will play.
For Wennberg, being back in the only home arena he had ever known since playing his first NHL game in 2014 is something he looks forward to.
The Blue Jackets, like just about every other team in the league, is not allowing fans into the building for games.
So there won’t be the buzz at Nationwide as there was last season when Bobrovsky led the Panthers onto the ice on New Year’s Eve after leaving the team for the sunny south.
“It is going to be a little bit different,” Wennberg said following Florida’s scrimmage on Saturday.
“There are a lot of memories there, being in that arena and all. I’m excited for it. It’s going to be fun to go back and play against them with Florida.”
When Zito left the Blue Jackets in September to become the new GM of the Panthers, only Bobrovsky (1-1-1, 2.00 GAA, .944 SV against Columbus last season) had ties to the Blue Jackets.
He would be joined by three others soon enough.
The first former Columbus player to join was Nutivaara as Zito sent a fourth-round draft pick to the Blue Jackets as the team was seemingly clearing salary cap space before free agency opened.
That same day, the Jackets bought out the final three years of the six-year deal Wennberg signed in 2017 making him a free agent.
Not surprisingly, Wennberg joined the Panthers the following day.
Duclair was the last to join.
In 2018, he signed a free agent deal with the Blue Jackets and after scoring 11 goals in 53 games, was traded to Ottawa at the deadline and spent parts of two seasons with the Senators.
Ottawa did not make Duclair a qualifying offer in October despite his 23 goals last season, making him a free agent as well.
After not getting an offer to his liking when the free agent market opened, Duclair ended up weighing his options and after a few heart-to-hearts with Zito, signed a one-year deal with the Panthers two weeks before the start of training camp.
“It’s awesome to go to a team where I know some guys from previous teams I have played on,’’ said Duclair, who had three goals in three games against Columbus last season for Ottawa.
“There’s a lot of familiarity and I am really excited to be around the kind of talent the Panthers have.”
When Wennberg signed his big six-year contract in 2017, it was thought he would be Columbus’ top center for the foreseeable future.
A few months into the 2017-18 season, however, rookie Pierre-Luc Dubois had supplanted him and Wennberg’s career in Columbus never reached what had been hoped and the team eventually bought out the final three years of his contract.
On Saturday, Dubois’ short career in Columbus came to an end as the Jackets traded the unhappy center to Winnipeg for high-scoring forward Patrik Laine and Columbus native Jack Roslovic.
Laine is not expected to play in the two-game series against the Panthers which concludes Thursday night for a variety of reasons including travel quarantine, visa issues and an upper-body injury which kept him out of Winnipeg’s previous game.
Roslovic — who had been working out in Columbus after not agreeing to a contract with Winnipeg — could make his Jackets debut against Florida.
The Panthers had interest in acquiring Dubois but Winnipeg’s offer was simply too much for the Jackets to turn down.
“I think both teams are excited about the quality of the player they received,” Florida coach Joel Quenneville said not long after the blockbuster trade was announced.
“Dubois had a great playoff and Laine can score with the best of them in the game. We look forward to the challenge of stopping him because he is one of the key guys on the power play they like to set up. He has one of those elite shots like Ovechkin. It’s a challenge, We’ll see how it plays out.”
Florida Panthers at Columbus Blue Jackets
When: Tuesday and Thursday, 7 p.m.
Where: Nationwide Arena; Columbus, Ohio
TV/Radio: FSF; 560-AM
Records: Florida 2-0-0 (first road game); Columbus 2-2-2 (1-0-1 at home)