The Florida Panthers will play the nightcap on the opening day of the 2023 Southeast Rookie Showcase tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes at 7 p.m. at Hertz Arena in Estero. Florida is bringing a 25-man roster to the event which will run until Monday.
Forwards
Liam Arnsby, Riley Bezeau, Skyler Brind’Amour, Josh Davies, Patrick Giles, Ryan McAllister, Mackie Samoskevich, Gracyn Sawchyn, Kai Schwindt, Mark Senden, Wilmer Skoog, Justin Sourdif, Sandis Vilmanis and Jake Wise.
Defensemen
Marek Alscher, Mike Benning, Luke Coughlin, Santtu Kinnunen, Evan Nause, Calle Sjalin, Nathan Staios and Zachary Uens
Goaltenders
Mack Guzda, Ludovic Waeber and Charlie Robertson (invitee)
Carolina’s 22-player roster for the event features thirteen players drafted by the club, including 2023 second-round pick Felix Unger Sorum, 2022 draft selection Jakub Vondras (sixth round) and 2021 draft picks Aleksi Heimosalmi (second round), Justin Robidas (fifth round) and Bryce Montgomery (sixth round). Other Hurricanes’ draft picks on the roster include Ryan Suzuki (2019, first round), Jamieson Rees (2019, second round), Noel Gunler (2020, second round), Vasily Ponomarev (2020, second round), Anttoni Honka (2019, third round), Domenick Fensore (2019, third round) Blake Murray (2019, sixth round) and Ronan Seeley (2020, seventh round). Carolina’s roster also includes free agent signings Griffin Mendel and Yaniv Perets, as well as invitees Jack Beck, Beau Jelsma, Gabriel Klassen, Anthony Romani, Colton Smith, Markus Vidicek and Charlie Wright.
The Tampa Bay Lighting and Nashville Predators will play the first game of the showcase at 4 p.m.
Euro Cats
Florida reserve Logan Hutsko scored a goal in IK Oskarshamn’s 3-2 overtime win over Luleå HF at Coop Norrbotten Arena in the Swedish Hockey League opener for both teams. Hutsko played 18:48 in his SHL debut and finished the game with two shots, a hit and a plus-one rating. Prospect defenseman Ludvig Jansson suited up for Luleå and registered three shots on goal in 8:27 of ice time.
Stepan Zvyagin did not play in Dinamo Minsk’s 3-2 loss to Tractor Chelyabinsk in regular season action from the KHL.
Jakub Kos was a scratch in Ilves 4-3 loss to Lukko in regular season action from Finland’s Liiga.