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Matthew Tkachuk To Have Hearing With Department Of Player Safety

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The NHL Department of Player Safety announced that Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk will have a hearing today in response to an incident that took place in last night’s contest against the Los Angeles Kings.

During the dying moments of the game, Tkachuk high-sticked Kings goalie Jonathan Quick, lifting his blade to the point where it was inside Quick’s mask. Kings defenseman Matt Roy called it a “dirty play,” per The Athletic’s Eric Stephens, and implored the league to “look at” the play, communicating a desire to see Tkachuk face disciplinary action.

Now, it looks like disciplinary action will be coming. Tkachuk has so far fit the Panthers like a glove, scoring 17 points in his first 12 games in Sunrise. With a likely suspension on the way, Tkachuk will face his first major speed bump in his tenure as a Panther.

Patric Hornqvist Day-To-Day With Upper-Body Injury

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  • Florida Panthers winger Patric Hornqvist, who suffered an upper-body injury early in Thursday’s game against the San Jose Sharks, is considered day-to-day, head coach Paul Maurice told the media, including Bally Sports’ Katie Engleson. The veteran has just one goal through 11 games to start the season, but with Florida missing several key pieces from last year’s team, they will need a quick recovery from Hornqvist and renewed production to help supplement their offense going forward.

Florida Panthers Recall Aleksi Heponiemi

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According to the team, the Florida Panthers have recalled forward Aleksi Heponiemi from the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers ahead of tomorrow’s road game in Los Angeles.

The 23-year-old forward signed a one-year, two-way contract extension last July to remain with the team that drafted him. Heponiemi was the 40th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft and proceeded to have a spectacular post-draft career in both the WHL and the Liiga before turning pro in North America. Although his offensive success hasn’t quite translated yet to the NHL (he has a goal and two assists in 15 career games), there’s still some development time left in the tank for Heponiemi.

The move comes with Patric Hornqvist and Colin White both sidelined with upper-body injuries, leaving the team with just 11 healthy forwards. Heponiemi had four points in his first six games with Charlotte.

Assuming no line changes occur in Hornqvist’s absence, Heponiemi could slot in on the wing and make a Finnish trio with Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell.

Aaron Ekblad's Expected Injury Timeline Is Four-To-Seven Weeks

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At the time that the Panthers placed Aaron Ekblad on LTIR, there was no timetable for his return beyond that it was expected that he’d be back this season.  In the latest TSN Insider Trading segment, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reported that the blueliner is likely to miss somewhere between four and seven weeks.  At a minimum, he has to miss 10 games and 24 days and if he’s ready to be back at the shorter end of that timeline, Ekblad might not miss much more than the minimum time.  Florida isn’t expected to go out and acquire a short-term replacement as they’ll need to have enough cap space to activate Ekblad when he’s ready to return but fortunately for them, they shouldn’t be without their star blueliner for too long.

Florida Panthers Sign Eric Staal

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After skating on a professional tryout that extended into the regular season, Eric Staal has earned a contract. The Florida Panthers have agreed to a one-year, one-way contract with the veteran forward according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. The deal will carry a salary of $750K.

Staal, 37, is quite the story of perseverance, after not playing in the NHL at all last season. Instead of signing on with a team, he played a handful of games for the Iowa Wild before captaining Canada at the 2022 Olympics. While there were many reports that he was hoping to sign for a stretch run after the tournament ended, a contract never materialized.

Now, he’ll join brother Marc Staal with the Panthers for at least one last go-round in the NHL, and try to show once again why he may one day get into the Hall of Fame. The second-overall pick from 2003 has 1,034 points in 1,293 career regular season games and won the Stanley Cup in 2006 with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Even in his last appearance in the NHL, with the Montreal Canadiens in 2021, he somehow found a new gear in the postseason. After being rather underwhelming during the regular season, Staal put up eight points in 21 games for the Canadiens as they took a Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Final.

While he certainly won’t be a huge difference-maker for the Panthers, there are worse depth options to bring in with the added cap space from moving Aaron Ekblad to long-term injured reserve. Staal is, after all, 78th all-time in NHL points, and has been skating with the team long enough to fully understand their systems and structure.

Florida Panthers Move Ekblad To LTIR; Recall Two Defensemen

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The Florida Panthers are hurting, with Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour both leaving the game a few days ago. While Montour is back at morning skate today, he won’t play tonight against the Philadelphia Flyers. In their place, Lucas Carlsson and Matt Kiersted have both been brought up from the AHL, with the latter only activated from season-opening injured reserve yesterday.

Interestingly enough, Eric Staal is also out with the main group, according to team reporter Jameson Olive, as he continues to skate on a PTO.

Ekblad has been moved to long-term injured reserve, a necessity given how little cap space the team had been dealing with. His timeline is still undetermined.

It is an unfortunate result for the Panthers’ top defenseman, who is coming off the best season of his career. Ekblad was sixth in Norris Trophy voting in 2021-22 after scoring 15 goals and 57 points in 61 games. That games played number is the important one here though, as it’s now been a few years since he was able to put together a full healthy season.

Going on LTIR means missing at least ten games or 24 days – not ideal as the team tries to find its new identity without Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar. In his first two games, Ekblad had averaged nearly 25 minutes a night and was likely set to see that much action for the entire season. Without him in the lineup, the team will have to find another way to fill up that ice time.

Matt Kiersted, Seth Barton Activated From Season-Opening Injured Reserve

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A pair of defensemen have been activated from season-opening injured reserve (SOIR) and are headed to their respective teams’ AHL affiliates. The Florida Panthers have assigned Matt Kiersted to the Charlotte Checkers, per CapFriendly, and the Detroit Red Wings have assigned Seth Barton to the Grand Rapids Griffins, per the team.

Season-opening injured reserve is generally used for players who did not make the team out of training camp, but can’t be involved in any NHL to AHL transactions due to their injured status.

Kiersted, 24, is a candidate to find himself back in the NHL sooner rather than later given the organization’s weak defensive depth. An undrafted free agent signing out of the University of North Dakota in 2021, Kiersted’s appeared in 17 NHL games over the past two seasons, registering a goal and an assist and averaging 14:31 per night. He had 20 points in 63 games with the Checkers last season in his first professional campaign, and he’s destined to play a top-four role again there when not on the NHL roster.

Barton was a third-round selection by the Red Wings in 2018. He’s entering his second full professional campaign after spending three seasons at UMass-Lowell from 2018 to 2021 and recorded six points in 20 AHL games during his rookie campaign with the Griffins in 2021-22. It’ll be a struggle for playing time in Grand Rapids, which now boasts some of the team’s top defense prospects such as Simon Edvinsson, Albert Johansson, and Eemil Viro. A return to the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye, where Barton played five games last season, could be in the cards.

Brandon Montour To Miss Monday's Game With Upper-Body Injury

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Just ahead of their game this evening, the Florida Panthers announced that defenseman Brandon Montour would not play. Per the team announcement, Montour is suffering from an upper-body injury. It’s unclear exactly how Montour suffered the injury; the defenseman has played in each of the team’s first two games this season, playing 24:56 opening night and 21:44 in Saturday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres.

An interesting wrinkle in this is, because the Panthers have had to carry a light roster due to their position against the salary cap, they will not be replacing Montour in the lineup. Instead, the team will run with 17 skaters – twelve forwards and five on defense. Considering teams only need 18 skaters and a pair of goaltenders to field a full team, it would seem practical for a team in such a cap situation to only carry 18 players on the roster, however a situation like the one Florida faces this evening is a prime example of why that strategy could cause issues down the line.

Justin Sourdif Assigned To AHL

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  • Like Pettersen, Florida Panthers forward Justin Sourdif has been activated from season-opening IR and sent down. (link). A third-round pick by Florida in 2020, Sourdif recently finished up an impressive junior career spent primarily with the Vancouver Giants, who dealt him to the Edmonton Oil Kings mid-way through last season. The 20-year-old forward had 71 points in 52 games last year in the WHL.

Panthers Claim Josh Mahura Off Waivers

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Florida has added some extra depth on the back end as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that they’ve claimed defenseman Josh Mahura off waivers from Anaheim.

The 24-year-old spent all of last season with the Ducks, his first full year at the NHL level.  However, his role was somewhat limited as he suited up in just 38 games (while only missing 13 due to injury).  He had three goals and four assists in those games while logging a little over 14 minutes per night.  Over parts of a four-year NHL career (all in Anaheim), Mahura has six goals and 14 helpers in 79 contests while averaging more than a hit and block per game.

Mahura is in the final season of a two-year deal that’s worth the league minimum of $750K so he’s a low-cost flyer for the Panthers.  With Lucas Carlsson and Michael Del Zotto both clearing waivers today, they’ll be sent down to make room on the roster for Mahura while team reporter Jameson Olive relays (Twitter link) that fellow blueliner Matt Kiersted is listed as day-to-day.

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