The Florida Panthers are wrapping up their preseason slate and they’re doing it in a place that rarely sees NHL action.
Florida will meet the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City for what should be a fun night in front of an energetic and excited crowd.
While the Panthers are expected to dress a fair amount of NHL regulars, it’s the guys fighting for Florida’s final roster spots who will be the ones to keep an eye on.
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Mackie Samoskevich is expected to still be with the Panthers on Opening Night, but the talented young forward has been battling an upper-body injury during training camp.
He’s yet to play in a preseason game but has been trending toward playing in Saturday’s matchup with L.A.
Samoskevich will likely get a good look on Florida’s third line with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen, and if all goes well, look for him to start the regular season there.
Forwards Patrick Giles and Will Lockwood are also pushing hard to stick around in South Florida past the weekend.
An injury to Tomas Nosek during Florida’s preseason-opening doubleheader nightcap created an opening on the Cats’ fourth line.
Giles has impressed during camp, showing an improved speed to his game to go with his size, strength and good hands around the net.
Lockwood was called up for a few games with Florida last season and has shown that he can play in Maurice’s systems, with a high hockey IQ and an elusive quickness to his game.
Youngster Sandis Vilmanis is also still with the team.
He’s shown well during camp, earning a spot on Lundell’s wing and looking good while skating with the two Finns.
Vilmanis has played a good amount of right wing during camp, but he’ll slide over to the left side for Saturday’s game.
As for the defensemen, the Panthers still have nine on their camp roster, but two of them – Matt Kiersted and Nathan Staios – are not expected to stick around once camp concludes.
That would leave seven for the active roster: Aaron Ekblad, Gus Forsling, Niko Mikkola, Dmitry Kulikov, Nate Schmidt, Adam Boqvist and Uvis Balinskis.
That is, of course, if Florida chooses to keep a seventh defenseman on the roster only for them to be a healthy scratch.
For much of last season they choose against this practice. Depending how solid Maurice feels about his top six blueliners, Florida may choose to go that route again, though doing so would mean having to waive the seventh defenseman and risk losing them to a claim.
We’ll know a lot more over the next couple days.
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