{"id":671925,"date":"2026-09-26T11:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T11:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/671925\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T11:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T11:36:19","slug":"florida-panthers-wrap-up-training-camp-where-the-roster-stands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/671925\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Panthers Wrap Up Training Camp. Where the Roster Stands"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT LAUDERDALE \u2014 The final practices of Florida Panthers training camp came and went without much fanfare on Friday.<\/p>\n

Coach Paul Maurice was off the ice after about 30 minutes for both practice sessions.<\/p>\n

The Panthers have their final preseason game tonight in Sunrise against the Lightning.<\/p>\n

Florida will have Sunday off, and by Monday, they will have their first official practice before Tuesday\u2019s season opener against the Carolina Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

\u201dThere is cake in the coaches room right now,\u2019\u2019 Maurice said. \u201cMonday will be a good day.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The Panthers will have their roster set by Monday afternoon which means some players will be placed on waivers by Sunday.<\/p>\n

Those who do not need waivers may be on a morning flight to Charlotte a few hours after playing against the Lightning.<\/p>\n

\u201dIt\u2019s been a constant jockeying for position and that is true for players who won\u2019t start here,\u201d Maurice said. \u201cWe had a lot of good pros here and a lot of guys fighting for almost non-existent jobs in some ways. But how they leave camp gives with the opportunity to have a leg-up on other players who go down. You want to make the team, I\u2019m sure of that, but want to leave with a very positive impression. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you hear in three weeks or a month that \u2018this guy is doing well,\u2019 they are the next one up. The door is not closed. You can have a great week or two weeks here, and the next few weeks are just as important. You want to leave with the best foot forward and leave a positive impression on the coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Panthers roster is pretty much set, that has been well documented. <\/p>\n

But there remain some open spots. <\/p>\n

The Panthers are allowed to carry 23 players; traditionally that has been 14 forwards, seven defensemen, and two goalies. <\/p>\n

Florida has talked about different combinations and there is a chance the team will not have the cap space to carry 23 players come Monday. <\/p>\n

\u201dWhen you are fortunate enough to have ownership willing to spend to the cap,\u2019\u2019 Maurice said, \u201cyou try and maximize that.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

According to PuckPedia<\/a>, the Panthers are currently $896,000 over the $104 million salary cap limit \u2014 and that is with just 21 players.<\/p>\n

Of course, that does not factor in what the Panthers will do with Brad Marchand and Jonah Gadjovich.<\/p>\n

Marchand will be out at least until November, Maurice said, which would allow the Panthers to claim a lot of his $5.25 million salary by placing him on long-term injured reserve and free up that cap space at least temporarily.<\/p>\n

Once placed on LTIR, a player would have to miss 10 games and 24 days. The Panthers will play 14 games between Tuesday\u2019s opener and the end of October. <\/p>\n

Gadjovich is out indefinitely, so he will almost assuredly be placed on LTIR which frees up his $905,000 salary. <\/p>\n

So, the Panthers will have a little flexibility as far as the salary cap goes to start the season at least. <\/p>\n

Now, the decision is who makes the Opening Night roster.<\/p>\n

Florida is set with its top 11 forwards with Bokondji Imama, Cole Reinhardt, Cole Schwindt and others battling it out for what may just end up being one opening on the roster. <\/p>\n

On the defensive side, the Panthers look to open with Radko Gudas and Dmitry Kulikov as their third pairing with Uvis Balinskis as the seventh. <\/p>\n

If Florida were to keep eight d-men, Alexander Petrovic seems to be the natural fit although with a two-year contract, he would likely slip through waivers to Charlotte easier than someone else such as Donovan Sebrango. <\/p>\n

With a wave of players crashing the waiver wire at the same time before rosters are finalized, the Panthers may just be able to slip their bubble players through.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

FLORIDA PANTHERS PROJECTED ROSTER<\/p>\n

Forwards (11): Sasha Barkov, Brady Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, Carter Verhaeghe, Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen, Sandis Vilmanis, Lars Eller, Garnet Hathaway<\/p>\n

Defensemen (7): Aaron Ekblad, Gus Forsling, Seth Jones, Niko Mikkola, Dmitry Kulikov, Radko Gudas<\/p>\n

Goalies (2): Jacob Markstrom, Akira Schmid<\/p>\n

LTIR (2): F Brad Marchand, F Jonah Gadjovich<\/p>\n

On the Bubble (3): F Bokondji Imama, F Cole Reinhardt, D Alexander Petrovic<\/p>\n

ON DECK: FLORIDA PANTHERS<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tGeorge Richards is the publisher of Florida Hockey Now and has been the beat writer covering the NHL Florida … More about George Richards, FHN Publisher<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE \u2014 The final practices of Florida Panthers training camp came and went without much fanfare on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[57,5,11765,804],"class_list":["post-671925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hockey","tag-florida-panthers","tag-hockey","tag-panthers-roster","tag-paul-maurice"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117337141221125312","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}