The Florida Panthers are starting the season with a thinner forward group than they wanted, and Brad Marchand is the biggest name on the list. The team said Marchand will miss the first month of the regular season while he continues to recover from surgery he underwent in August. Marchand had already said a month ago that he would miss training camp.
Florida’s injury issues don’t stop there. The Panthers also announced that Jonah Gadjovich remains out indefinitely after undergoing neck surgery in November of last season.
Head coach Paul Maurice addressed the uncertainty around Gadjovich’s recovery, saying, “ We’re still looking at options and searching for some answers on this. ”
It’s an unwelcome familiar problem for the Panthers. Injuries hit their forward group hard last season and wiped out any realistic shot at reaching a fourth straight Stanley Cup Final. With a healthier year clearly the goal, Florida is already dealing with another rough opening stretch.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic, Ottawa Senators defenseman Artem Zub is still working back from the lower-body injury he suffered in Game 1 of Round One against the Carolina Hurricanes last postseason. General Manager Steve Staios, via TSN’s Claire Hanna, said Zub did not need surgery, but he will still miss the first two weeks of training camp. Even with the offseason to heal, the fact that he’s still sidelined suggests the injury was more serious than it first appeared.
The Toronto Maple Leafs also made a round of roster moves before unveiling their training camp group. According to a team announcement, the club released Sebastian Charvát, Matyáš Man, Parker Vaughan, and Nic Whitehead from their amateur tryout agreements.
Toronto also sent four players back to their major junior teams rather than keeping them around for camp. The Maple Leafs said Rylan Fellinger is headed back to the OHL’s Flint Firebirds, Brody Pepoy to the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit, Patriks Plūmiņš to the QMJHL’s Chicoutimi Saguenéens, and Cooper Williams to the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades.
In Other News...
Travis Greens First Camp Decisions Say A Lot About Ottawas Ceiling
The opening days of Senators camp have looked less like a scramble for jobs and more like an early test of chemistry. Travis Green is spending his first practices sorting out combinations and seeing what fits, a sign Ottawa is approaching this season with a different kind of urgency after back-to-back playoff appearances and a clear desire to keep climbing in the Eastern Conference. The coach has stressed having options, but the bigger point is that the roster already feels settled enough for him to focus on how the pieces might actually work together.
Some of the early groupings hint at the sort of top-end talent Ottawa wants to lean on, with Tim Stutzle alongside Andre Burakovsky and Drake Batherson as one of the more intriguing looks. Greens approach suggests he is trying to identify which alignments can drive play rather than simply fill out a lineup card, and that matters for a team that no longer wants to be judged by just getting in the door. The next step is figuring out whether these looks can translate from camp drills into the kind of balance and depth contending teams usually need. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Blue Line Move Raises New Concern About Artem Zub
The Senators have brought veteran defenseman Ben Hutton into training camp on a professional tryout, a move that adds some extra depth to a blue line already dealing with a familiar kind of uncertainty. Hutton arrives with more than 400 NHL games on his resume since 2015, giving Ottawa a seasoned option to look at while it sorts through the back end in camp.
His presence also puts a sharper focus on Artem Zubs status, with the defenseman currently unavailable. Ottawa is already trying to map out its early-season picture on the blue line, so any added help has a purpose beyond just filling a practice spot, and this latest move suggests the club still has questions it wants answered before camp settles in. [Read more 🡒]
Leafs Quietly Made A Goalie Change Ottawa Fans Should Notice
The Maple Leafs have quietly adjusted to one of the NHLs lesser-known new requirements, and it is the kind of wrinkle Ottawa fans should at least keep an eye on when Toronto comes to town. Brendan Bonello, a 27-year-old from Mississauga with junior and minor pro experience, is now part of the Leafs game-night setup as the designated emergency backup goalie, giving Toronto its own built-in insurance policy under the leagues expanded coverage.
It is a notable shift from the old arrangement, when teams leaned on a local emergency goalie supplied by the home team if disaster struck in net. Now every club has to bring its own EBUG on the road, which means the Leafs are no longer depending on the arena down the street to solve a crisis. For Ottawa, it is another small but meaningful change in the rhythm of a Sens-Leafs matchup, especially in a season when every detail around the rivalry tends to get noticed. [Read more 🡒]