Bit of a long post. I won't lie I'm in total IDGAF mode. Feels like we can ride out this year on the Cup. I'm a bit confused about the opening night roster, GR posted this:
Florida Panthers Ready to Play for Real. Updating the Opening Roster
Florida has to be cap compliant by 5PM today. Because Driedger is still up, the only way this is possible is if Nosek is placed on LTIR and Giles and Vilmanis are loaned to Charlotte today. This would be a paper move to try to get Driedger through waivers.
Going back to GR's article, the math doesn't add up. Let's assume on Monday, Driedger is waived and clears Tuesday. On Tuesday, Giles and Vilmanis could be called back up, so Florida would have 14 forwards, like GR says, but even if Nosek is placed on LTIR (GR says IR but that wouldn't add cap relief) Florida is still 300k over. The only way they could be cap compliant with 14 forwards is if Nosek is LTIR'd and Driedger is kept with Knight waived, which I think would be surprising. My suspicion is Giles will be called back up Tuesday but Vilmanis won't be. Opening night:
Verhaeghe-Barkov-Reinhart
Rodrigues-Bennett-Thachuk
Luo-Lundell-Samo
Greer-Boqvist-Giles
healthy scratch-Gadjo, LTIR-Nosek
Forsling-Ekblad
Mikkola-Boqvist
Schmidt-Kuli
healthy scratch-Balinskis
Bob
Knight
The above is cap compliant. The only way to keep 14 forwards is to take the above lineup and waive Knight and have Driedger as backup.
