Panthers lineup tonight: Florida's projected lineup for NHL game against Vegas Golden Knights | Oct 19, 2024

On Saturday, the Florida Panthers will host the Vegas Golden Knights as the defending Stanley Cup Champions look to bounce back from a loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.

On the other side, the Vegas Golden Knights will be looking to snap a two-game skid that saw them most recently fall to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Ahead of tonight's game, the Panthers have three players listed on their injury report. Winger Tomas Nosek is still sidelined following a collision with the boards caused by Panthers defenceman Jeremy Lauzon, while Aleksander Barkov is still working to recover from a lower-body injury.

In addition, Matthew Tkachuk is still listed as day-to-day with an illness. Although he's projected to miss Saturday's clash with Vegas, the expectation is that he will return to action on Tuesday.

With that in mind, the team's lines for Saturday's game are as follows:

Forwards:

1. LW Eetu Luostarinen - C Anton Lundell - RW Sam Reinhart
2. LW Carter Verhaeghe - C Sam Bennett - RW Evan Rodrigues
3. LW AJ Greer - C Jesper Boqvist - RW Mackie Samoskevich
4. LW Jonah Gadjovich - C Patrik Giles - RW Uvis Balinskis

Defensive Pairings:

1. Gustav Forsling | Aaron Ekblad
2. Niko Mikkola | Dmitry Kulikov
3. Adam Boqvist | Nate Schmidt

Goalies

• Sergei Bobrovsky
• Spencer Knight

Powerplay

1. Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Anton Lundell, Adam Boqvist, Carter Verhaeghe
2. Evan Rodrigues, Eeto Luostarinen, Mackie Samoskevich, Aaron Ekblad, Uvis Balinskis

Penalty Kill

1. Anton Lundell, Sam Reinhart, Gustav Forsling, Aaron Ekblad
2. Eetu Luostarinen, AJ Greer, Niko Mikkola, Dmitry Kulikov

Looking at the latest updates regarding players on the Panthers injury report

Heading into Saturday's game, many Florida Panthers fans are wondering when key players like Matthew Tkachuk will be back in action.

In the case of Tomas Nosek, while he avoided a concussion in the collision, he is expected to miss the rest of October while he works his way back to action. According to coach Paul Maurice, the expectation is that he will be with the team when they play in Finland to start the month of November.

In the case of Aleksander Barkov, Maurice gave an optimistic update while speaking with NHL.com:

“We're hopeful that [Barkov returns] sometime on the New York trip. It may not be. But we are quite confident that means in Finland. This kind of injury, you need a week of hard skating with no relapse. We're really happy with where it is.”

In the case of Matthew Tkachuk, after missing a week due to an illness, the belief is that he will be back in action on Tuesday when the Panthers face off with the Minnesota Wild.

With the team's sights set on going back-to-back as Stanley Cup Champions, it will be interesting to see how things play out once they return to full strength.