Florida Panthers Announce Opening Night Roster

As the Florida Panthers approach opening night Tuesday, the team has whittled down their roster to below the required 23 men. They will roll into their matchup with the Boston Bruins in Sunrise with 13 forwards, seven defensemen, and two goaltenders.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the omission of goaltender Spencer Knight. The 23-year-old looked solid during the preseason, including against the NHL-heavy lineup of the Tampa Bay Lightning later in the schedule. Knight did not have to pass through waivers, making it easier to send him down to AHL Charlotte without risking another team picking him up.

Center Patrick Giles is another guy who had a case for making the team, but is also waiver exempt like Knight. Giles, 24, had an impressive camp and often skated with the fourth line of Jonah Gadjovich and A.J. Greer.

Of course, both of these players will likely see time with the NHL team after other teams around the league finalize their rosters and the Panthers can safely send guys through waivers.

One skater who did make it was Mackie Samoskevich. The 21-year-old winger was slated to likely make the team, playing on the right wing of the Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell line. However, Samoskevich missed the first few games of the preseason with a minor upper body injury, and it seemed slightly possible he wouldn’t be ready in time for opening night.

However, he returned late in the preseason and played in the Panthers’ preseason finale against the Los Angeles Kings on

Forwards:

Carter Verhaeghe

Aleksander Barkov

Matthew Tkachuk

Evan Rodrigues

Sam Bennett

Sam Reinhart

Eetu Luostarinen

Anton Lundell

Mackie Samoskevich

Jonah Gadjovich

Jesper Boqvist

A.J. Greer

MacKenzie Entwistle

Defensemen

Gustav Forsling

Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola

Dmitry Kulikov

Adam Boqvist

Uvis Balinskis

Nate Schmidt

Goaltenders

Sergei Bobrovsky

Chris Driedger