Florida Panthers benefiting from Eetu Luostarinen shifting back from wing to center
Luostarinen is off to a career-best start in the faceoff circle this season
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports - Florida Panthers benefiting from Eetu Luostarinen shifting back from wing to centerLeading up to the 2023-24 season, it was known that the Florida Panthers were going to be struggling with injuries to start, but things got even worse in the second to last preseason game.
With Florida already missing defenseman Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour, who are both recovering from offseason shoulder surgery, Panthers second line center Sam Bennett suffered a lower-body injury and has not been back on the ice since.
There still is no exact timetable for his return, but Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said that Bennett may be back sometime before Florida heads back out on the road again.
Going back to last season, the Panthers have had one guy who was asked to step into the second line center role when Sam Bennett has been unavailable (and even at times for Florida Captain Aleksander Barkov, who also missed time last season), and that was forward Eetu Luostarinen.
After missing 12 games at the end of Florida’s 2022-23 schedule, Bennett returned for Game 2 of their first round against the Boston Bruins.
Without Bennett in the lineup, Florida went 6-5-1.
Luostarinen being placed in this situation is not new.
Last year, Luostarinen finished with career highs nearly across the board.
He accumulated 17 goals and 26 assists while averaging 17:05 in time on ice.
But wait, there’s more.
He also put up 132 shots on goal and operated at a 12.9% shooting percentage success rate.
While Luostarinen only took 46 faceoffs, winning 57% of them, his experience at center when called upon, especially in the defensive zone and while on the penalty kill, proved to be essential.
It’s that experience that has Maurice feeling better about getting through this tough stretch of injuries, as when natural centers are shifted to the wing, some can feel out of rhythm when they do go back to the middle.
“That would be the unknown, the faceoffs, because once you are not taking as many draws, you get out of that rhythm.” said Maurice after Wednesday’s practice at Amerant Bank Arena. “The quality of play does not surprise us, but it does make you think sometimes, ‘Maybe I should just leave him there,’ right? Then [Bennett] comes back healthy, you kick [Luostarinen] to the wing then you think, ‘No, no, no, let’s leave him on the wing.’ He gets moved around because of injuries because he is the easiest guy to move around, to a positive benefit. He excels to the point where you want to leave him there, and then an injury dictates that he has to go somewhere else.”
Luostarinen’s flexibility has also helped fellow Panthers center Anton Lundell solidify his spot on the third line, as Florida has maintained the same lineup down the middle through the first four games of the season.
A great example of Luostarinen’s value to the Panthers came during last year’s postseason, when a knee injury suffered during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final kept Eetu form playing in the Stanley Cup Final.
Florida acquired Luostarinen at the 2020 Trade Deadline when he was part of the deal that sent Vincent Trocheck to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for defenseman Chase Priskie, and forward’s Erik Haula, Lucas Wallmark, and Luostarinen.
In his first full season with the Panthers was the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign, in which Luostarinen played 44 games, mostly as the third line center.
Once Lundell, Florida’s first round pick that year, signed his entry-level contract, it was assumed that Luostarinen was not going to be playing at center on the third line.
In his first season with the Panthers, Luostarinen mostly centered a line with Frank Vatrano and Owen Tippett.
Year two, most of his ice time came at fourth line center, playing with Ryan Lomberg and Patric Hornqvist, though Luostarinen did fill in the third line role from time to time when injuries cropped up during their Presidents’ Trophy-winning season.
At the start of training camp for the 2022-23 season, Maurice gave Luostarinen the ultimate vote of confidence, emphasizing that he is a top-9 player.
Along with the team learning a new system in year one, Florid also had forwards who were shifted to different positions. This was the season where Luostarinen was at his best, and he was one of six Panthers players to skate in all 82 games last season.
“He’s one of our best players, night in and night out. He’s a swiss army knife,” Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said Wednesday. “He bounces around, plays in every situation and is just a perfect team player. He puts everyone else first. For me, I Iove playing with him because he covers up for my mistakes and allows me to play more on the offensive side. I did not know a lot about him to be honest before I came here last year. Since the first game last year, he was one of our best players.”
The young Finnish forward earned himself a three-year contract extension worth $9 million, which kicks in at the start of the 2024-25 season.
Considering it appears to be a team-friendly deal, and with Luostarinen’s ability to play in all situations, he is a player the Panthers know is going to be relied upon even more as his game continues to mature.
Whether he is playing third line wing with on a fully healthy Panthers roster or filling in elsewhere due to an injury, Luostarinen will be first to be called upon to play a bigger role more times than not.
LATEST THN FLORIDA STORIES
