Injured defensemen Aaron Ekblad, Brandon Montour to join regular Panthers practices
Ekblad and Montour have yet to play this season as both are recovering from offseason shoulder surgery
David Dwork - Injured defensemen Aaron Ekblad, Brandon Montour to join regular Panthers practicesThe Florida Panthers held an optional morning skate on Saturday ahead of their 6 p.m. matchup with the Seattle Kraken.
While only a handful of players elected not to take the option, two of the participants were quite notable.
Panthers defensemen Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad, both of whom are recovering from offseason shoulder surgery, were on the ice with the main group for the light morning workout.
Until now, Florida’s top defensive duo has been participating in what Florida Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice has called “IR skates” which has basically been on-ice practice sessions between Montour, Ekblad and Jonah Gadjovich (Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett have joined during respective injury recovery).
After Saturday’s skate, Maurice provided an update on why they were out there and what it means for the future.
“There’s a window,” Maurice said. “I think their injuries were kind of four-to-six month windows. There’s a five-month window, so the doctors would have to sign off, but they’re closing in, over the next two-and-a-half weeks, from possibly being available toward the end of the month.”
Maurice and Florida General Manager Bill Zito have said at different times over the past couple months that the tentative target for Ekblad and Montour was mid-December.
The pair is now set to take part in regular practices and join the team on its upcoming road trip, though Maurice said they would be wearing gold, non-contact sweaters.
In terms of each players timeline, Maurice said Montour was about a week ahead of Ekblad in his recovery simply because Montour had his surgery a week earlier.
“Tomorrow will be good because tomorrow will be the first practice (for Ekblad and Montour)" Maurice said Saturday. “We’ll have nine D on the ice, but we’re gonna get quite a bit faster and a little bit bigger with those two guys out there. And you see that, you put two guys with the elite things that they do — Aaron’s range and his puck ability, and then just Brandon’s pure speed on breakouts and things like that — it just changes the way you look.”
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