Overview

• Florida used Thursday’s preseason game in Tampa to roll out a likely Opening Night lineup, with Carter Verhaeghe–Sam Bennett–Sam Reinhart atop the forward group and Eetu Luostarinen–Anton Lundell–Brad Marchand on the second line.
• Projected defense pairs featured Gus Forsling–Aaron Ekblad, Niko Mikkola–Seth Jones, and Dmitry Kulikov–Jeff Petry, while the top power play unit deployed Bennett, Reinhart and Marchand with Jones and Ekblad.
• Penalty-kill looks included Luostarinen–Luke Kunin and Lundell–Marchand up front, and Sam Reinhart was not used on the shorthanded units in this viewing.
• Captain Aleksander Barkov is recovering from ACL and MCL surgery with a seven-to-nine-month timeline, Matthew Tkachuk is expected back around December after adductor surgery, and Tomas Nosek is out for several months.
• After three straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final, analysts caution Florida could regress this season, and with Barkov expected on LTIR, observers suggest GM Bill Zito could evaluate stopgap options and potential deadline additions using roughly $10.5 million in temporary cap relief.