The Florida Panthers beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2 on Monday night but the big news to come from the postgame was Joel Quenneville confirming 20-year-old goalie Spencer Knight would make his NHL debut on Tuesday.

Knight, the 13th pick of the 2019 NHL Draft, signed with the Panthers late last month and has been with the team just about every day since.

On Tuesday night, the Panthers will try and keep pace with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes in the race for the top spot in the Central Division standings.

And, yes, they will do so with a rookie goalie who celebrated his 20th birthday by suiting up for his first NHL game Monday night as he backed up Sergei Bobrovsky.

The Panthers won Monday’s game as Bobrovsky was solid in net. It would be Chris Driedger’s turn to take the net Tuesday but, well, Knight needs a game.

Why not put him in against a Columbus team which plays hard every night but may just be, at this point in the season, the worst team in the NHL?

The Panthers assumedly promised Knight an NHL start when the two sides agreed to a contract as he left Boston College after two successful years.

The Blue Jackets are going to come hard at Knight and the Panthers on Tuesday night after losing their past six games.

But the Panthers feel the kid is ready for the challenge.

As Quenneville said following Florida’s pedestrian win Monday night, the team is excited to see what the most hyped young goalie the team has had since it acquired a baby-faced Roberto Luongo from the Islanders in 2000 can do.

“He has done everything he can to prepare for this opportunity,’’ Quenneville said Monday night.

”As an organization, we’re looking forward to it as well. In practice, nothing bothers him. He’s very cool in net. He has seen a lot of shooters at our level here.

”It’s not a game (situation) but he has seen some meaningful challenges.”

The Panthers really have not had a so-called “goalie of the future” since Jacob Markstrom was taken by Jacques Martin with the first pick of the second round at the 2008 draft in Montreal.

Markstrom was rushed into duty due to injuries and, perhaps, his own view of his development and did not really work out here.

He was traded to Vancouver in the deal which brought Luongo back in 2014.

Even as Markstrom evolved into a pretty good NHL goalie with the Canucks and now Calgary, few question the reasoning in that return.

The Panthers got Luongo back to South Florida. It cost them a goalie who probably would not have developed the way he ultimately did as backup to Luongo.

Markstrom wanted to take off and it would not have happened, more than likely, behind a Hall of Famer. He needed to play.

GOALIE TRADITION

In the franchise’s history, the Panthers have a few traditions.

The rubber rats from 1996 are perhaps the biggest. They still get tossed onto the ice this day.

But having strong goaltending has been a hallmark of he Florida Panthers from Day 1.

Bill Torrey and Bobby Clarke snagged John Vanbiesbrouck in the 1993 expansion draft and the Panthers have had good goaltending, for the most part, every since.

Look at the names on the Florida goalie chart from 1993 on: Vanbiesbrouck, Kirk McLean, Sean Burke, Trevor Kidd, Luongo, Tomas Vokoun, Jose Theodore. Luongo Part II.

How about the backups? Mark Fitzpatrick, Kevin Weekes, Jamie McLennan, Craig Anderson, Alex Auld, Scott Clemmensen, Al Montoya, James Reimer.

Chris Driedger.

What about the ones who were here for just a short time: Mike Vernon, Ed Belfour, Tim Thomas, Dan Ellis.

Not too shabby.

Knight, at least right now, is a look into the future.

We don’t expect him to start any more games aside from Tuesday unless Bobrovsky or Driedger gets hurt.

And even then, the Panthers may bring Sam Montembeault back from their shared AHL team in Syracuse to handle things.

He seems to be developing quite well and has some real NHL experience. Montembeault may turn out to be pretty good.

But make no mistake, Bobrovsky is the goalie for now and into the near future.

He has five years remaining after this season on the biggest contract the team has ever signed.

Bobrovsky has a full no-movement clause for the next three *the last two are modified) and makes $10 million a year.

He’s the goalie moving forward.

It should be fun to see what Spencer Knight can do at least right now.

With the Panthers secure in their playoff spot, giving the kid a start is not going to hurt anything. Yeah it’s Driedger’s turn, but he gets it.

At 20, with all Knight has done leading up to this whether it it was with the U.S. Development team, Boston College or playing at World Juniors for Team USA, there is excitement in the potential here.

Knight, in a few years, is projected to be The Guy.

It won’t end here, but it all starts Tuesday against the Blue Jackets.

“(Tuesday) will be fun,’’ Quenneville said. “Get that first one, first taste of his career. We’re looking forward to it as well.”

Columbus Blue Jackets at Florida Panthers

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINES

FLORIDA FORWARDS

19 Mason Marchment — 16 Sasha Barkov — 97 Nikita Gusev

11 Jonathan Huberdeau — 9 Sam Bennett — 91 Anthony Duclair

77 Frank Vatrano — 21 Alex Wennberg — 70 Patric Hornqvist

83 Juho Lammikko — 71 Lucas Wallmark — 74 Owen Tippett

FLORIDA DEFENSEMEN

8 Matt Kiersted — 42 Gus Forsling 

65 Markus Nutivaara — 62 Brandon Montour

3 Keith Yandle — 7 Radko Gudas

FLORIDA GOALIES

30 Spencer Knight

60 Chris Driedger

Scratches: G Sergei Bobrovsky, F Ryan Lomberg, F Eetu Luostarinen, D Anton Stralman, D Noah Juulsen

Injured: F Carter Verhaeghe (upper body, week-to-week); F Noel Acciari (UBI, D2D); D MacKnezie Weegar (UBI, D2D); D Aaron Ekblad (leg, out for regular season)

Taxi squad: D Kevin Connauton, F Cole Schwindt, F Scott Wilson, G Philippe Desrosiers

Sent to AHL Syracuse: F Aleksi Heponiemi, D Brady Keeper, D Lucas Carlsson

Florida power play (32/146 21.9% — 11th in NHL)

Florida penalty kill (108/135 80% — 14th in NHL)

PP1: Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Patric Hornqvist, Nikita Gusev, Keith Yandle

PP2: Alex Wennberg, Anthony Duclair, Frank Vatrano, Mason Marchment, Gus Forsling

PROJECTED COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS LINES

COLUMBUS FORWARDS

28 Oliver Bjorkstrand — 96 Jack Roslovic — 13 Cam Atkinson

50 Eric Robinson — 42 Alexandre Texier — 29 Patrik Laine

88 Kole Sherwood — 16 Max Domi — 26 Zac Dalpe

23 Stefan Matteau — 21 Josh Dunne — 49 Ryan MacInnis

COLUMBUS DEFENSEMEN

43 Mikko Lehtonen — 3 Seth Jones

44 Vladislav Gavrikov — 15 Michael Del Zotto

46 Dean Kukan — 2 Andrew Peeke

COLUMBUS GOALIES

70 Joonas Korpisalo

90 Elvis Merzlikins

Columbus power play (14/102 13.7% — 28th in NHL)

Columbus penalty kill (88/112 78.6% — 20th in NHL)

PP1: Oliver Bjorkstrand, Jack Roslovic, Cam Atkinson, Patrik Laine, Seth Jones

PP2: Eric Robinson, Alexandre Texier, Kole Sherwood, Max Domi, Mikko Lehtonen