Panthers Training Camp Day 1: Roster Predictions

FORT LAUDERDALE — The summer as champions has come to an end for the Florida Panthers — now they’ll get to work to ensure there’s no Cup hangover. 

 

Training camp began Thursday at the Baptist Health IcePlex, this is how the 2024-24 Panthers roster could shake up on opening night. 

 

Forwards

Florida’s top-nine was one of, if not the best forward groups in the entire league last season and nearly everyone is returning this year. The lone departure from that group is winger Vladimir Tarasenko, who signed a two-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings this offseason. 

 

Tarasenko, 32, scored five goals and nine points last postseason, spending most of the time on the third line with Anton Lundell  and Eetu Luostarinen. 

 

The rest of the forward departures were important pieces to the championship team, but inevitably replaceable depth players in a hard capped NHL. 

 

 

The locks: Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk, Evan Rodrigues, Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen (all played in top-nine last season). 

 

No surprise, the Panthers’ top-nine won’t be seeing too much change from last season. 

 

Other than Tarasenko, eight of the top-nine that played in last season’s Stanley Cup Final will be back — leaving one spot open for competition come training camp. 

 

Tarasenko’s replacement

The ball is in 21-year-old Mackie Samoskevich’s court to win a job out of camp. 

 

Last season, Samoskevich made the Panthers opening night roster and played three NHL games in October. He was sent down to AHL Charlotte that month and had one more cup of coffee with the Panthers at the end of January before finishing his season with the Checkers, where he led the team in scoring with 54 points. (22 goals, 32 assists)

 

With already a full year of professional hockey under his belt, a good camp and preseason would not only give Samoskevich a roster spot, but it should see him play way more than seven games with the Panthers. 

 

Samoskevich didn’t skate on Thursday’s opening day of training camp. He is dealing with a “minor upper-body injury”, per Paul Maurice. They will IR skate him and hope he’s good for full sessions on Tuesday. 

 

“There’s opportunities and he had a really good first year in pro,” Maurice answered when asked about Samoskevich slotting  into the top-9. “We have a lot of faith in the young man as a player and as you saw today we also got a number of other players that are going to compete for that job. So there is competition there.”

 

Like Samoskevich, 22-year-old Justin Sourdif made the 2023-24 Panthers opening night roster and played three games with the team before spending the rest of the season in the AHL. 

 

Sourdif will be an interesting player come training camp. 

 

He’s already cracked an opening night NHL roster and has two years of AHL experience (62 points  106 games). It also wouldn’t surprise me if Sourdif plays some fourth line minutes this season. 

 

Important to note, both Sourdif and Samoskevich are waiver eligible.

 

A new fourth line 

Florida’s fourth line is where the largest amount of jobs will be won and lost in camp.

 

The team lost Ryan Lomberg, Kevin Stenlund, Steven Lorentz and Nick Cousins to free agency, while Kyle Okposo just announced his retirement from the game on Wednesday.

 

Jonah Gadjovich is the one fourth liner who returned this season from the Cup team and he should once again make the team out of camp.

 

Penciling in Gadjovich, there will be two open spots on the fourth line, plus any scratches for the 23-man opening night roster. 

 

The Panthers retooled over free agency, bringing in depth players like A.J. Greer, Jesper Boqvist, Tomas Nosek and MacKenzie Entwistle. Will Lockwood, who played 26 games with Florida last season, is another player who will be in contention for a spot.

 

Who replaces Ekman-Larsson, Montour 

Florida will miss Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who both left on July 1 after playing every playoff game in 2024.

 

The other four defensemen who played in the Stanley Cup Final — Gustav Forsling, Aaron Ekblad, Niko Mikkola and Dmitry Kulikov — all return and are locks for the opening night lineup. 

 

After splitting the season between the Panthers, and AHL Charlotte and then joining Florida for their Cup run, Uvis Balinskis — who the team highly rates — is too good to not be on the team this season.

 

Like Balinskis, it would be hard to not see 12-year NHL veteran Nate Schmidt make the team. 

 

The 33-year-old has appeared in 661 NHL games and played for Paul Maurice when he was with the Winnipeg Jets in 2021-22.

 

Florida will need to make a decision on whether they take seven or eight defensemen on its final roster, and if they go with the former, there will be some tough cuts to be made. 

 

Tobias Bjornfot, Adam Boqvist, Matt Kiersted and Jaycob Megna will all be fighting for the final spot(s) on the blueline. 

 

Bobrovsky and Knight duo returns?

Sergei Bobrovsky will be the starter next season, that isn’t up for discussion. As for his backup, all signs point to 23-year-old Spencer Knight reclaiming his spot as the NO.2 now that Antony Stolarz is in Toronto. 

 

The Panthers also brought back Chris Driedger, who played for the team from 2019-2021. He spent most of last season with the Seattle Kraken’s AHL affiliate. He is most likely going to be in the AHL next year with Charlotte as the Panthers’ NO. 3.

 

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