George Richards, FHN Publisher
The Florida Panthers officially kick off their 2023-24 season a week from today when they travel to St. Paul to face the Minnesota Wild.
Before that, however, the Panthers have two preseason games remaining.
There is still business to attend to.
The Panthers appear to have just a couple of vacant roster spots although it still remains a question of who will grab them.
The Panthers are expected to cut down to 23 players following Saturday’s game in Sunrise — but which 23 players will be flying to Minnesota?
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First off, the Panthers do not appear to have the salary cap space to carry 23 players without placing at least one of their injured defensemen on long-term injured reserve.
With GM Bill Zito saying that both Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour are expected to be out until at least December, that means both would fulfill the 10-game, 24-day prerequisite for LTIR.
By placing one — or both — players on LTIR, the Panthers have the cap relief to have 23 players on the opening roster and sign Brett Ritchie to a league-minimum contract if they wanted to.
It does not appear that is going to happen.
Ritchie has not been on the shelf the past few days with an undisclosed injury which obviously comes at a bad time considering he is here on a professional tryout.
Florida coach Paul Maurice and the Panthers know what Ritchie could bring to their team based off his past but with a player like Mackie Samoskevich playing so well, we cannot see Florida sending their talented rookie to Charlotte just so they can sign Ritchie.
Now, we could see Florida choosing Grigori Denisenko over Samoskevich — at least at the short term — just because they do not want to risk losing their 2018 first-round pick through waivers.
Denisenko, however, has also been out of action since have tightness in his back last Friday night. If that does not clear up, it is possible he starts the season on IR.
The Panthers do have room for both Denisenko and Samoskevich on the opening 23 but veteran Zac Dalpe has made a real push to stick around.
If Denisenko starts on the IR, the veteran Dalpe may not be headed back to Charlotte just this minute.
FORWARDS (14)
The Locks: Sasha Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett, Evan Rodrigues, Eetu Luostarinen, Anton Lundell, Ryan Lomberg, Nick Cousins, Kevin Stenlund, Steven Lorentz
The Final Two: Mackie Samoskevich, Grigori Denisenko/Zac Dalpe
DEFENSEMEN (7)
The Locks: Gus Forsling, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Niko Mikkola, Dmitry Kulikov, Josh Mahura, Mike Reilly
Lucky No. 7: Matt Kiersted
LTIR: Aaron Ekblad, Brandon Montour
The Panthers have a lot of veteran defensemen this camp and it will be a work in progress as the weeks go on to see who plays where.
As far as the power play goes, it looks like Ekman-Larsson will start the season running the top unit with Gus Forsling on PP2.
Kiersted appears to have won a spot on the opening roster for the second time in three seasons but he, of all people, understand it is tough to hold onto a spot here especially with John Ludvig looking good in camp.
Ekblad and Montour will not be out forever; there will be more movement to come.
GOALIES (2)
The Starter: Sergei Bobrovsky
The Backup: Anthony Stolarz
To Charlotte (For Now): Spencer Knight
There was no question coming into camp who the starter was as Bobrovsky took back the job with an incredible run through the playoffs.
The big question was, who would backup? I do not know that question has been answered — or needed to be answered.
Knight has looked great throughout camp. His practices have been crisp, his starts solid.
But when you see Stolarz getting treated like the No. 2 during practices, it appears the decision here was made a while ago.
And that is not a knock on Knight. He appears to get the gist of what the Panthers are trying to do and that is to get him a lot of playing time at the AHL level in the first few months.
Knight will be back — sooner than later, we would guess.