Paul Maurice provides updates on injured Florida players who have been held out of training camp practices
The Florida Panthers, and the rest of the NHL, are entering the home stretch of the preseason.
Florida has already played in five exhibition contests, and they all came in the span of just seven days.
On Monday the Panthers trimmed the team's training camp roster down to 35 players.
As Florida Head Coach Paul Maurice explained on Monday afternoon, that includes 28 "healthy bodies" and a handful of players who are being held out with minor injuries and ailments.
Of the seven players not part of the healthy group, Maurice said three are considered "long term guys" and they are Aaron Ekblad, Brandon Montour and Jonah Gadjovich.
All three have been skating regularly, just not with the main group or doing anything that includes physical contact.
Meanwhile, Florida Captain Sasha Barkov has been dealing with a minor illness and hasn't been on the ice for several days.
"We think he'll skate tomorrow, he's just been sick," Maurice said of Barkov.
The hope is that Barkov takes part in a regular practice on Friday which would, as Maurice put it, "open the door" for him to play in Saturday's preseason finale against Tampa Bay at Amerant Bank Arena.
Regarding the three additional short term injuries, Maurice said Grigori Denisenko, Brett Ritchie and John Ludvig should be back on the ice fairly soon.
"They'll IR skate, but they won't join the group until they're cleared," Maurice said.
Once those players do get clearance, they'll be eligible to jump into one or more of the final preseason games Florida has this week.
The expectation is that the Panthers will utilize more of their veteran players during the last exhibition games.
Many of them, like Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, Gus Forsling, Evan Rodrigues, Sam Reinhart, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and several others, played during Florida's preseason-opening doubleheader against Nashville last Monday, but not in any of the three games since.
"We kept our returning players out of the lineup, so they'll all go back in," Maurice said. "Most of them will play two of three (games) and some will play all three."
Following Monday's roster cuts, the players remaining in training camp who aren't among the regular NHL group know it's time to really bear down.
The Panthers play their first regular season contest in just ten days, so the coaching staff is now shifting its emphasis from evaluating and assessing players to preparing those who are left for the games that count.
That means the guys who are competing for one of the final roster spots are running out of time to prove their worth.
"We have to now turn our focus to the players, getting the returning guys ready," Maurice said. "Each player that is an addition shot is probably going to get one (game), but they've got to make the most of it to consider getting two."