Florida Head Coach Paul Maurice provided an update on his injured defenseman after Monday's morning skate

Next week, the Florida Panthers will hit the road for a west for a road trip that takes them through the league’s three California cities.

Those will be games 15, 16, and 17 of Florida’s season.

There is a chance that when the Panthers return from that trip for a three-game homestand, they could get a major boost to the team’s blue line.

Florida has been without top defenseman Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour so far this season after both underwent offseason shoulder surgery.

They have each been skating off to the side since the start of training camp, and within the past couple weeks began participating in regular practices with the team.

Both were given tentative recovery windows of between four and six months, which on the back end would have had them potentially getting into the lineup around mid-to-late December.

After Monday’s morning skate at Amerant Bank Arena, Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice was asked for an update on each player and their respective recovery.

“I'm going to say they're absolutely on time in terms of the normal window, and probably potentially ahead of what we would have thought at the start,” Maurice said. “You get these injuries, four to six months, but you're probably looking at around five months of healing. They're going to be ahead of the six months, but they're probably going to be fairly close to a five month (return), which is great. So our biggest fear, why we would say to you this thing could be into December, because that would be the six month from surgery, and that's possibly what happens, but their rehab and recovery has been very, very good.”

Maurice then said that there was a chance both players could make their respective season debuts sometime during the three-game homestand that begins on Nov. 20 against Edmonton and ends four days later against Winnipeg, even keeping the door open for something to potentially happen sooner.

“This is a chance that near the end of the trip, and then when we come back for the homestand off the west coast, we can see one or two of them,” Maurice said.

The Panthers enter Monday’s home game against the Columbus Blue Jackets holding a 5-4-1 through their first 10 games of the season.

Florida has defended quite well despite playing without two of the top defensemen in the league, but adding the pair of dynamic, two-way skating rearguards with elite skills back into the mix should give a massive boost to the defending Eastern Conference Champions. 

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