Paul Maurice leans on veteran stability and high-energy depth as returning stars find their chemistry, revealing a formidable blueprint for the Panthers' upcoming season.
We’re two days into Florida Panthers training camp and the energy and enthusiasm on the ice has been apparent to those of us watching from outside the glass.
Florida’s players are well aware of the great opportunity that lies before them.
We’ve seen in recent seasons just what a healthy Panthers team can accomplish, and this year’s roster of Cats might just be the deepest one yet.
So far, Florida’s training camp has consisted of 51 players broken up into two groups.
Over the coming days and weeks, that number will get whittled down as players began making their way to the teams they’ll spend much of the season with.
For now, it’s time to show the NHL managers and coaching staff what you have to offer on the ice.
Florida will have one more day of on-ice work Saturday before they kick off the team’s four-game-in-seven-days preseason slate.
Through two days of practices, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice has run pretty consistent forward lines and defensive pairings.
It provides a glimpse into how we could see Florida line up when they take the ice on Opening Night against the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh on Sept. 29.
In terms of Florida’s expected NHL roster, the top three forward lines have a bit of familiarity to them, as do the four defensive pairings.
“There’s not much change from something that we’ve have,” Maurice said. “We've got two kind of newish players in our top nine right now: Brady (Tkachuk), and then we've got Sandis (Vilmanis) in the hole where (Brad Marchand) plays. There’s no newness for Sam Reinhart and Barkov, except Sam's pretty excited about the fact he gets to play with (Barkov) right now.”
After missing all of last season recovering from knee surgery, Barkov is back and looking his usual, world class self. He’s skating with Reinhart and the younger Tkachuk brother.
Older brother Matthew is in a familiar spot, lining up on the right side of a line with Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe.
Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen are once again on the same line, with youngster Sandis Vilmanis filling in on the right side where the injured Brad Machand is normally slotted.
“Because we have such stability in the other groups of men, I'm going to let those run for a while,” Maurice said of the Panthers’ veteran forwards. “That's the truth. If I don't like all three lines for two games, I'm going to change them. Even if it was the same lines that they played together all year, you change. But I'm going to leave those guys for a little while, let them learn each other.”
Overall, and particularly with the non-NHL guys that are still fighting for roster spots and playing for a potential future role, Maurice just wants to see what they can do and how they operate within Florida’s systems.
“All I'm looking for is the new guys as individuals. I'm trying to learn them before I even start coaching them, right? So we have our routes…that's team stuff. I'll watch that, and that'll be me, but really, it's the assistant coaches a lot that do a lot of that individual video work, get all the routes right. Then I'm going to watch a guy play, and I'm going to try to figure out what he's great at.”
Here is how the lines and pairings have looked so far in each group:
Group 1
Brady Tkachuk – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sandis Vilmanis
Cole Reinhardt – Kai Schwindt – Nathan Bastian / Robert Mastrosimone
Hunter St. Martin – Gracyn Sawchyn – Jack Devine
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Dmitry Kulikov – Radko Gudas
Marek Alscher – Toby Bjornfot
Emil Pieniniemi – Ludvig Jansson
Group 2
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Bokondji Imama – Lars Eller – Garnet Hathaway
John Beecher – Angus Crookshank – William Bitten / Sam Lafferty
Karsen Dorwart – Nate Smith – Riese Gaber
Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones
Uvis Balinskis – Alex Petrovic
Donovan Sebrango – Mikulas Hovorka
Matvei Shuravin – Casey Fitzgerald
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