Five questions to answer as Panthers training camp and a chance to three-peat begins
Hockey is back, Panthers fans.
The Florida Panthers begin training camp on Thursday, with their first preseason games set for Sunday with a road doubleheader against the Nashville Predators (3 p.m., 7:30 p.m.).
The Panthers’ quest for a third consecutive Stanley Cup starts on Oct. 7 when they host the Chicago Blackhawks.
Here are five questions about the Panthers during the next three weeks before the season gets underway.
How will this Panthers training camp be different?
Paul Maurice’s training camps are stuff of legend. They’re physically demanding. They’re exhausting.
But after three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final, topped with winning it all each of the past two years, Maurice is making an adjustment to camp.
Veteran players who have been on the team through multiple Cup Final runs are going to spend the first week doing an extra week of individual training before joining the group sessions.
“When training camp starts and I take the big fellas out for Day 1, their individual training stops because they physically just can’t do what we do on the ice and then continue to condition,” Maurice said on WQAM’s The Joe Rose Show. “So we found a block of time to allow them to train, but it’s going to be every bit as hard as it’s ever been.”
The players who have been here during the past three years are certainly receptive to the idea. The Panthers have played 314 total games in that span and have had three consecutive short offseasons.
“As you can imagine, our mentality with that is pretty happy and excited,” defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “Training camp can get long and monotonous after awhile, so we’re pretty happy to get that extra week or whatever it is.”
Added captain Aleksander Barkov: “We all know we need to work hard. It’s not an extra week off. We still come in. we still have to do this stupid bike test, but it’s great to work on the things that we maybe don’t get to work on during the season, and that’s just one extra week of doing that.”
How will the Panthers fill voids left by Tkachuk and Nosek injuries?
The Panthers will be without two key forwards in star winger Matthew Tkachuk and fourth-line center Tomas Nosek long-term to start the season. Both are slated to miss multiple months.
This opens the door for both a top-six winger role and a bottom-six forward role for players to seize throughout training camp.
Tkachuk, who had surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle and sports hernia, generally plays on the right wing of Florida’s second line which is centered by Sam Bennett. Mackie Samoskevich, who scored 15 goals and had 31 points last season while spending time on Bennett’s line, would be a logical candidate to fill that role.
Nosek, who according to president of hockey operations Bill Zito sustained a “pretty significant” lower-body injury during offseason training, is Florida’s main fourth-line center and a key part of the Panthers’ penalty-kill unit.
Florida signed Luke Kunin, who has thrived in bottom-six forward roles, late in the offseason as a potential replacement while Nosek is out. Jesper Boqvist, who played some time at center last season, is also an option especially since he is good on the penalty kill.
“One of the blessings that you guys have seen with our group is that coach can deploy players up and down the lineup in whatever situations,” Zito said. “You’ve seen any number of players have success playing with Sasha, and then you might have a guy who’s gone from playing with Sasha to the to the fourth line. ... We have a chance to play them to their strengths.”
How will Panthers handle the pressure of a three-peat?
The Panthers return 18 of 20 players who were in the lineup for their Cup-clinching Game 6 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final. They have 14 players who have been part of both championship runs and a 15th in Brad Marchand who understands the challenge of playing as the defending champion.
How will they use that experience to their advantage?
“Complacency, you don’t see that in this room,” Marchand said. “Everyone has a similar mindset. When you get a taste of it, you really, really want it again.”
Will Bobrovsky’s run of success continue?
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky has been the Panthers’ backbone the past three years.
During the past three postseasons, Bobrovsky has posted a .912 save percentage in 66 games (65 starts), with Florida winning 44 of his 65 starts.. He has six shutouts in that span — one in 2023, two in 2024 and three in 2025 — and 39 games with two or fewer goals allowed.
Bobrovsky, who turns 37 on Saturday, is entering the final season of his seven-year, $70 million contract. He said he hasn’t thought beyond that.
“It doesn’t really matter for this moment, what happens after the season,” Bobrovsky said. “I’m excited. I’m on a great team with great people surrounding me. I just want to take the whole advantage of this moment.”
Who are new players and prospects to watch out for?
While the Panthers return almost everyone from last season’s Stanley Cup champions, there are some new names to know.
The Panthers’ main free agent acquisitions were Kunin, defenseman Jeff Petry and goaltender Daniil Tarasov. Kunin is in play for fourth-line center duties with Nosek out to start the season. Petry will be competing with Uvis Balinskis to be part of Florida’s third defense pair with Dmitry Kulikov. Tarasov is set to back up Bobrovsky.
Beyond them, the Panthers have a dozen players in camp on professional tryouts. Three come in with NHL experience in forwards Noah Gregor, Nolan Foote and Tyler Motte.
And then Florida has some intriguing prospects in camp, with forwards Jack Devine, Hunter St. Martin and Gracyn Sawchyn, defenseman Mikulas Hovorka and goaltender Cooper Black leading the way.
.JPG)