Florida Panthers Make Cuts, Will Dress More Veterans vs. Tampa Bay
The Florida Panthers cut their roster to 42 players and will dress a lineup more closely resembling the NHL roster when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night.
FORT LAUDERDALE — The Florida Panthers have cut their training camp roster down to 42 players as they enter the final week of the preseason.
And in turn, they will dress a lineup more-closely resembling the opening-night roster when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night.
Forwards John Leonard, Aidan McDonough and Ben Steeves, and defensemen Marek Alscher, Mike Benning, Evan Nause and Zachary Uens were all assigned to AHL Charlotte. Rookie forwards Gracyn Sawchyn and Hunter St. Martin were assigned to their respective junior clubs.
Matt Luff was released from his NHL try-out offer and was offered an opportunity with AHL Charlotte, per coach Paul Maurice.
“I believe he accepted that offer and he is going to report to Charlotte to compete for a job there,” Maurice said.
Per Maurice, Sergei Bobrovsky will start in net tonight with a veteran lineup in front of him.
The top two forward lines will both play tonight while the next two preseason games will contain defensive pairings with 50 percent NHL guys and 50 percent players looking to compete for a spot.
Florida will bring a lineup very close to its opening night roster for its final preseason game in Quebec against the Los Angeles Kings, per Maurice.
PROJECTED PANTHERS LINES VS. LIGHTNING:
Carter Verhaeghe - Aleksander Barkov - Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues - Sam Bennett - Matthew Tkachuk
Jonah Gadjovich - Patrick Giles - A.J. Greer
William Lockwood - Zac Dalpe - Rasmus Asplund
Gustav Forsling - Aaron Ekblad
Nate Schmidt - Adam Boqvist
Uvis Balinskis - Dmitry Kulikov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Spencer Knight
ROSTERS:
