Giles Called Up, Barkov Injured; Here's What's Next for Panthers
The Florida Panthers called up Patrick Giles on the heels of an injury to captain Aleksander Barkov; here's what you need to know.
After a scare in Thursday night’s game against the Ottawa Senators, the Florida Panthers could be without captain Aleksander Barkov for a little bit.
While there has yet to be an official update on Barkov’s status going forward, the team has called up Patrick Giles from AHL Charlotte to possibly fill in for at least Saturday night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres.
So, what does this mean for the Panthers?
The lineup could shift into some familiar ways from when Barkov and Sam Bennett have sustained injuries in the past.
For one, Anton Lundell can jump up to center a line with Sam Reinhart and one of Eetu Luostarinen, Evan Rodrigues or Carter Verhaeghe.
The combination of Lundell, Luostarinen and Reinhart has been one the Panthers have gone to a lot throughout the 23-year-old’s four-year NHL career and has proven to be a line coach Paul Maurice can trust in the playoffs.
Luostarinen is also fully capable of playing center and could do so on a line alongside Rodrigues, Mackie Samoskevich and/or Jesper Boqvist if need be.
Boqvist, who currently centers the fourth line, is fully capable of playing both on the wing and at center in the Top 9, so the Panthers have a lot of options for their lineup moving forward.
Giles, the new addition from AHL Charlotte, can easily slide in at fourth-line center — a position he came close to winning outright during training camp after Tomas Nosek went down with an injury.
Nosek has been placed on Injured Reserve and is still considered week-to-week.
So, what could Florida’s forward group look like when they take on Saturday night in Buffalo:
We’ll take a stab at projecting it here:
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Evan Rodrigues — Jesper Boqvist — Mackie Samoskevich
Jonah Gadjovich — Patrick Giles — A.J. Greer
That set-up would provide the Panthers with two lines they are familiar with from the past couple of seasons and a fourth line they ran together pretty heavily throughout training camp.
As for the third line, Rodrigues could take face-offs to help with Boqvist’s inefficiency in the face-off dot while being a skilled veteran mentor for Samoskevich as he looks to continue to take the next step in his development.
Rodrigues’ arrival on Lundell’s wing aided in his breakout towards the end of the regular season last year and could very well help Samoskevich in a similar fashion.
We will have to see how the Panthers line up during Saturday’s morning skate, but it should look pretty close to that.
This week’s ‘Film Room Friday’ edition will be moved back to Saturday due to a WiFi outage caused by restoration efforts from Hurricane Milton. My apologies for the inconvenience.