Newly acquired Panthers forward Kyle Okposo expected to join Panthers following deadline deal with Buffalo

The Florida Panthers will be taking the ice on Saturday afternoon in their first game post trade deadline.

They dropped their first game of what will be a quick two game home stand, which was also the last game before the NHL trade deadline.

Their six-game winning streak came to an end on Thursday night against the Philadelphia Flyers. Despite losing in Vladimir Tarasenko’s Panthers debut, they still hold the top spot in the NHL coming into Saturday’s slate of games.

Since then, general manager Bill Zito made another major move trading for forward Kyle Okposo from the Buffalo Sabres for defenseman Calle Sjalin and a conditional 7th round pick. Okposo spent the last eight seasons in Buffalo, where he was selected as the Captain for the last two years.

The right handed shot forward is expected to provide a boost to Florida’s bottom six on the right wing.

That was the second time that Zito traded for a player who wore the “C” on their sweater for the team they were on before making their way to South Florida. Claude Giroux of the Flyers was the other at the 2022 deadline.

Florida also claimed 22-year-old defenseman Tobias Björnfot of the Vegas Golden Knights off of waivers. Björnfot was drafted in the first round in 2019 by the Los Angeles Kings and has 119 games of NHL experience under him. He has one goal and 14 assists in his career.

His last game came on Jan 10. Since then, he spent time on injured reserve and also had a conditioning stint with AHL Henderson.

Neither are expected to make their Panthers debut when they hit the ice in a game setting on Saturday.

Saturday does bring another opportunity for Tarasenko to play once again with Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart on the top line.

Tarasenko registered two shots on Thursday and provided speed on a roster that generates most of its offense on the forecheck. It’s a great opportunity to build cohesion with one another.

Florida welcomes former Panthers Jonathan Huberdeau, Mackenzie Weegar and the Calgary Flames to Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday late afternoon. It will be their second and final meeting of the season.

This will be both Huberdeau and Weegar’s second trip back to Sunrise since the big blockbuster trade in July of 2022 that brought Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers.

Calgary came out victorious in the first go round winning by a score of 3-1 back at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Dec. 18.

All the goals that Florida surrendered were on special teams, including two short-handed goals in the third period.

Florida went on to win 11 games in a row on the road after the loss in Alberta. Their road winning streak ended on Feb. 22 in Raleigh, which was a span of 66 days.

Calgary is coming off a 6-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.

The Panthers will have a different look at the Flames this time around. Despite a 6-4-0 record in their last 10 games, Calgary sits six points out of the final wild card spot, which had them as sellers at the deadline.

The ones of trades of note were sending center Elias Lindholm to the Vancouver Canucks, defensemen Chris Tanev to the Dallas Stars, and Noah Hanifin to Vegas.

Here is how the Panthers are expected to line up on Saturday at 4pm:

Vladimir Tarasenko - Aleksander Barkov - Sam Reinhart

Carter Verhaeghe - Sam Bennett - Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen - Anton Lundell - Evan Rodrigues

Nick Cousins - Kevin Stenlund - Ryan Lomberg

Gustav Forsling - Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola - Brandon Montour

Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Dmytry Kulikov

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