The 20-year-old rookie leads Florida in preseason scoring, with six points in four games
We’re down to the final week of Florida Panthers training camp.
Coaches and executives have been going through the process of whittling the Panthers roster down as Opening Night in Minnesota approaches.
As of Monday, the group that began with 59 players was down to just 35. That means there will be at least another 12 cuts coming, depending on whether any players are placed on Injured Reserve.
It’s expected that defenseman Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour will begin the season on IR. Both have been skating regularly in full gear, though not yet as part of a full practice with teammates.
One of the players at Panthers camp that has been under the spotlight is forward Mackie Samoskevich.
Selected 24th overall by Florida in the 2021 NHL Draft, Samoskevich signed his entry-level contract earlier this year following two standout seasons with the University of Michigan.
Between the Panthers summer development camp, last month’s rookie showcase in Estero and now NHL camp in Coral Springs, Samoskevich has continued to impress regardless of the level of play.
“It's been a new learning experience for me," Samoskevich said Monday. "Being around these guys, you learn so much just by watching them, so it's been great so far and I’m looking forward to the rest of it."
Sitting at one of the temporary locker stalls inside the Panthers locker room at the Coral Springs Ice Den, Samoskevich couldn’t help but smile when asked how it felt to survive the latest round of roster cuts.
“It’s been pretty cool,” he told THN after Monday’s practice, which was the first of training camp to feature only one group of skaters.
The way he’s been playing, it seems like only a matter of time until he moves from the locker-on-wheels in the middle of a crowded dressing room to a permanent stall alongside the other 20ish Panthers to make the Opening Night roster.
The NHL hopeful leads the team in preseason scoring, logging three goals and six points in four games, so it wasn’t a shock when his name was left off Monday’s list of 13 players that would no longer be skating in South Florida.
“He's had a good camp and he's got NHL-ready skills for sure,” Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said following Monday’s practice. “The learning curve, in terms of how to apply it – there's something interesting about some very skilled players, the game actually gets easier for them as the cuts get made. The game is far more controlled at the NHL level. There's usually only one guy chasing you, and everybody knows which guy it's going to be (because) everybody's got a job on the ice. So there are players that can process the game more easily.”
While Samoskevich has seamlessly transitioned from one level to the next, it hasn’t come without being tested.
Throughout training camp, Maurice has put the rookie in all kinds of situations and skated him with linemates of varying levels of skill and experience.
He played on a wing with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen, with Grigori Denisenko and Kevin Stenlund and on Monday Samoskevich was on the ice with Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk.
Looking at the potential makeup of Florida’s forward lines, that’s a possible landing spot should Samoskevich earn a job on the Panthers initial roster.
“It was super fun playing with those two guys,” Samoskevich said. “Even between reps, they were talking to me, and we were talking through things. I think we were creating a little chemistry.”
The 20-year-old admitted that while it’s still surreal that he’s on the ice competing with and learning from guys like Bennett and Tkachuk, he knows there are more important things to focus on.
“I’d say it happened during camp, when you try to take a second and say, ‘wow, this is pretty cool,’ but I try not to too much because you have to have confidence in yourself,” Samoskevich said. “‘You belong with them.’ That’s my attitude towards it, so I try not to be a fan too much.”
He didn’t look like a fan on Monday, when he was on the ice with Panthers winger Evan Rodrigues for a good 20 minutes after practice had ended.
The two were working on shooting, with Samoskevich paying close attention to what the veteran was saying and doing.
Rodrigues has been keeping an eye on Samoskevich throughout camp and has encouraged him from day one to push for an NHL spot.
“He's a real good player,” Rodrigues said. “I talked to him the first day of camp and told him his goal should be to make this team, because you could see right from the first hour that he has the skill level, he's got a great shot and he plays the game the right way. As a young kid, it’s all about that compete level and I think he's done a great job with it throughout camp.”
Whether it’s picking up tips from Rodrigues, Tkachuk or any of the other litany of players with a wealth of knowledge to offer, Samoskevich is happy to be soak up as much as he can.
Transitioning from juniors or college to the pro game is never easy, and those jumps rarely include going all the way up to the NHL as quickly as Samoskevich is hoping to.
As has been the case to this point, he’ll continue to get every opportunity to show he’s worth a spot on the Panthers roster.
Maurice has said that Samoskevich will likely play in all three of Florida’s final preseason games, but he’s also said that the rookie wouldn’t be kept around beyond that for a fourth line role or to be a healthy scratch.
If he’s with the Panthers when the regular season begins, any NHL action would likely come in Florida’s top six. Say, perhaps, on a line with Bennett and Tkachuk, the same players he was skating with on Monday.
“We'll get through these next three games and get a feel for where he's at,” Maurice said. “But yeah, he's not going to sit in the stands for the first 10 games, waiting for me to get him in a game. He's playing hockey.”
Florida will play three preseason games over the next six days.
After that, we’ll soon learn whether Samoskevich will start his NHL journey now…or later.
“I've learned so much already, and I think I'm going to learn even more down the road,” he said. “I've been pretty lucky to be around it, so I'm super thankful.”
