The Florida Panthers have made a number of roster changes heading into the weekend.
On Thursday night, Panthers captain Sasha Barkov was injured in the final moments of Florida’s 2-1 loss in Ottawa.
He went into the boards first and suffered an apparent lower-body injury, which caused him to leave the game and require assistance to leave the ice.
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Reports surfaced on Friday indicating that Barkov’s injury may not be as serious as some feared, and the team’s roster moves don’t contradict that thinking.
The Panthers have recalled Patrick Giles from the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, a move reflected in the NHL Media roster and the AHL Transactions log, and placed Tomas Nosek on Long Term Injured Reserve, according to PuckPedia.
Nosek was injured last month in the nightcap of Florida’s opening doubleheader against Nashville and has been on a week-to-week basis since then.
Now that Nosek has been placed on LTIR, it means he will miss at least 10 games and 24 days. Additionally, since he is now on IR, Nosek’s $775,000 salary does not count against the cap.
That financial move freed up enough room under the salary cap to allow Florida to draft Giles, who has the same $775,000 NHL salary as Nosek, leaving the Panthers with $420,000 in cap space, per PuckPedia.
If you’re wondering why this is all a good sign for Barkov, if Barkov was feared to miss an extended amount of time, he probably would have been the one placed on LTIR.
While we still have no official word from the Panthers on the severity of Barkov’s injury, it seems like a good sign that the team hasn’t placed him on LTIR, ending any hopes of seeing him before November.
The Panthers will travel to Finland at the end of October to play a pair of games against the Dallas Stars in Barkov’s hometown of Tampere on November 1 and 2.
You better believe Barkov wants to play in those games.
Whether or not that is in the cards for Barkov is not yet known, but putting him on LTIR would mean he would definitely miss both since they both fall within that 24-day window.
There will be an update from Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice on Barkov’s status when he meets with the media after Florida’s morning skate in Buffalo.
We’ll see how it turns out.
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