Panthers winger Evan Rodrigues will be back in the lineup for tonight’s Game 7 after missing the last two contests with an undisclosed injury, relays Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports. He’ll replace Jesper Boqvist, who had directly filled Rodrigues’ spot on the top line alongside Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart in his absence.
Florida’s offense is back at full strength to counter the Maple Leafs’ top unit of Matthew Knies, Auston Matthews, and Mitch Marner, who are collectively coming off their best performance of the series in Game 6 while facing elimination. Knies was questionable for tonight’s do-or-die contest after getting banged up in the first period, but Toronto head coach Craig Berube confirmed this morning he’ll be in the lineup without any minutes restrictions.
Even before exiting the lineup, Rodrigues’ minutes were limited at times earlier in the series. He played a season-low 8:48 in Game 2 after a hit from behind by Toronto forward Scott Laughton that earned him a controversial embellishment call, and he left the Cats’ Game 4 win in the third period after a hard hit from Leafs defender Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Rodrigues has two points in four games in the series, both in Florida’s Game 3 overtime win. He combined with linemates Barkov and Reinhart to assist on the Panthers’ first two goals of the game and logged nearly 19 minutes of ice time, his most of any game so far in the playoffs.
The 31-year-old only has three assists in nine postseason outings this year but was an indispensable depth piece in the Panthers’ Cup win last year, scoring 7-8–15 in 24 games – including four goals and seven points in seven Stanley Cup Final games. The versatile top-nine forward hit 30 points for the fourth year in a row in the regular season, mostly playing a supporting role on Florida’s top two lines.