Panthers enter home stretch of regular season with a rare back-to-back in Pittsburgh, facing a Penguins team fighting for playoff positioning.
The Florida Panthers are about to begin their final road trip of the season.
A long, injury-filled season is slowly nearing its end for Florida, but not before they play their final five road games in the span of eight days.
The fun starts on Saturday in Pittsburgh when the Panthers begin a rare weekend back-to-back against the same opponent, playing the Penguins in consecutive days.
This season has been something of a surprise regarding Pittsburgh, who wasn’t viewed as a major postseason threat heading into their campaign.
That hasn’t stopped the Pens from maintaining a playoff spot for basically the entire season.
Entering play Saturday, Pittsburgh is holding onto second place in the Metropolitan Division with 92 points. They’ve got a three-point edge on the third-place New York Islanders with a game in hand, so this weekend’s doubleheader with Florida could go a long way toward securing the Pens spot in the postseason dance.
Florida, meanwhile, has been hovering toward the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings for several weeks.
The big focus for many Panthers fans has become the team’s first-round selection at the 2026 NHL Draft, which they initially traded to the Chicago Blackhawaks at last season’s Trade Deadline in the dead that brough Seth Jones to Florida.
That pick is actually top-10 protected, meaning if the Panthers end up finishing in a position that has them slotted for a selection in the top 10 of this summer’s draft, they’ll keep it, and Chicago will instead get Florida’s 2027 first-rounder.
Currently, the Panthers are in the ninth-worst spot in the league standings, and that’s after pulling off consecutive home wins last week against the Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins.
Now Florida has seven games remaining, with only the final two coming back on home ice. Five of those games will come against teams currently holding playoff spots (Pittsburgh, Montreal, Ottawa, Detroit), and the other two will come against clubs who are, similarly to Florida, jostling for draft position (Toronto and the New York Rangers).
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Saturday’s scuffle in Pittsburgh:
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Mackie Samoskevich – Eetu Luostarinen – A.J. Greer
Noah Gregor – Tomas Nosek – Jesper Boqvist
Cole Reinhardt – Luke Kunin – Vinnie Hinostroza
Gus Forsling – Tobias Bjornfot
Donovan Sebrango – Seth Jones
Mikulas Hovorka – Mike Benning
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Photo caption: Oct 23, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) moves the puck against the Florida Panthers during the first period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)