The Florida Panthers were back on the ice in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday for a full day of training camp.
Once again, the team was split into two groups.
The first group was full of mostly veteran players who aren’t expected to see much game action until next week.
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Florida’s second group, which featured many of the players from Wednesday’s preseason loss to Tampa Bay in Orlando, will also comprise most of the roster that faces the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night in Raleigh.
One player who is getting a good look at a possible roster spot has been Patrick Giles.
Florida initially signed Giles as an undrafted free agent to an AHL contract back in 2022, and he’s remained with the organization since.
An injury to Tomas Nosek that will keep him out for the next several weeks left a potential opening on Florida’s fourth line, and Giles has been the first man to get a crack at it.
He skated between wingers A.J. Greer and Jesper Boqvist during the loss to Tampa Bay, and that’s where he remained during the Panthers’ second group practice on Thursday in Fort Lauderdale.
Cats Head Coach Paul Maurice brought up Giles and the growth he’s seen in the 24-year-old’s game over the past few camps.
“Patrick Giles has made huge improvements in his speed,” Maurice began. “So two years ago, we thought he was a big man that had some hands around the net. We saw that with the goal the other night, he took it from his skate to his stick, (off the) bar really quickly. But he’s got a whole new level of conditioning and speed, so we’re certainly interested to see how he develops.”
A defensive pairing that we may see on Friday night is Nate Schmidt and Adam Boqvist.
They have skated together for the past several days, including during the loss to Tampa Bay, and were in group two on Thursday.
Boqvist took shifts on Florida’s number one power play earlier this week and Schmidt was seen quarterbacking the second power play unit, so both are clearly in the mix for spots on the Opening Night roster.
With a likely top pairing of Aaron Ekblad and Gus Forsling and the recent chemistry growing between Niko Mikkola and Dmitry Kulikov, a good showing from this Boqvist-Schmidt combo could go a long way toward not only cementing their place on the roster, but as a viable even strength middle pairing.
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