Competition for few spots heating up as Panthers enter second week of training camp

The Florida Panthers were back on the ice in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday as they resumed training camp following a well-earned day off on Tuesday.

Florida endured three tough days of practice after opening camp on Thursday, and then swept Sunday’s preseason opening doubleheader against the Nashville Predators.

Now they're preparing for a pair of upcoming road games this week, Wednesday in Orlando against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Friday in Raleigh against the Carolina Hurricanes.

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The Panthers have yet to trim down their training camp roster and are still running two separate practice groups, though the makeup of each group looked a bit different on Monday.

First on the ice was a collection of mostly NHL veterans, including Florida's top three forward lines and two defensive pairings.

The top six, which was Sasha Barkov centering Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart while Sam Bennett skated between Evan Rodrigues and Matthew Tkachuk, looked the same. Sandis Vilmanis has been taking reps on the right side of the third line next to Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen, though Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice indicated after practice that he planned to see different players trying that spot, including Mackie Samoskevich and Justin Sourdif.

Sourdif was skating with the veteran group on Tuesday but left practice early with what appeared to be an upper-body injury.

"The first thought when you looked at it, because it looked like he went head first, but there isn't a sign now that he's got a concussion," Maurice said. "It looks like he just cut his face up a little bit and he's got some upper-body stiffness."

While it sounds like Sourdif may have dodged anything serious, he'll be reevaluated on Wednesday when he arrives to the rink.

Samoskevich was expected to skate on Tuesday but was held off as a precaution.

He's dealing with an upper-body injury but has been skating and took part in Saturday's training camp practice while wearing a gold, non-contact jersey.

"He had kind of a flare up when he was back on the ice," Maurice said. "It didn't get worse, we just want to get him cleaned up."

Samoskevich won't skate in Wednesday's game against Tampa Bay and likely isn't going to practice fully with the team until Friday or Saturday, according to Maurice.

Viewed as a potential fit for that third line spot, the sooner Samoskevich can get back on the ice, the better his chances will be for sticking around on Opening Night.

In the meantime, Vilmanis has looked good skating with Lundell and Luostarinen.

He had a big season with the WHL's North Bay Battalion last year and signed his entry-level contract with Florida in March.

"I really liked his camp last year, and he's a young player still," Maurice said. "There are lots of parts of his game that will grow, and I think he has the skill to have it grow."

While he'll continue fighting for that NHL job, Vilmanis is expected to start his professional career with the AHL's Charlotte Checkers.

That being said, it wouldn't be the first time a rookie showed up and showed out at an NHL camp to win a spot nobody anticipated he would.

Stay tuned.

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