Nathan Bastian is heading to Florida on a professional tryout, and the Panthers confirmed it Tuesday evening alongside their full camp roster.
He will wear number 11. That is the whole ceremony for a PTO.
The 28 year old spent last season in the Dallas organization, dressing for 36 NHL games and collecting seven points. Six goals, one assist.
He also got four games with the Texas Stars in the AHL, where he put up two goals and three points.
The résumé is what it is. A 6-foot-4 right wing out of Kitchener, taken 41st overall by New Jersey back in 2016.
Across 312 NHL games he has 39 goals, 75 points and 211 penalty minutes. Nobody is confusing that with a top six ticket.
But Florida is not shopping for skill right now. They are shopping for bodies that can skate on opening night.
Panthers add Nathan Bastian just before training camp as injury concerns emerge
Because he has played more than 100 NHL games, the rules limit him to two of Florida's four exhibition dates. That is the entire audition.
Now look at why the door is open. Sam Bennett, Carter Verhaeghe and Seth Jones are all listed day to day and questionable for the start of the season.
Brad Marchand is not expected back until at least October 10 with a lower body issue. He is 38 and still put up 54 points in 52 games.
Keep going and it gets worse. Niko Mikkola, Uvis Balinskis, Dmitry Kulikov and Jonah Gadjovich are all carrying the same questionable tag.
The crease is not settled either. Jacob Markstrom is 36, sits at $6 million, posted a .883 save percentage and is himself day to day.
Akira Schmid is the cheap insurance at $875,000, coming off a .893 mark with two shutouts across 34 games.
None of this happened in a vacuum. The Panthers finished 40-38-4 and ranked 25th overall.
They were brutal away from home, going 17-23-1 on the road. That is the number Paul Maurice has to fix first.
The bottom six did not help. Garnet Hathaway put up three points in 66 games at $2.4 million, and Sam Lafferty managed two in 29.
So is a tryout forward really the answer here?
Filling holes like this is like calling temps the week your best people all get sick. It keeps the lights on. It does not win you anything.
Bill Zito still has a group that includes Matthew Tkachuk, who only dressed 31 times last season. Getting that group healthy matters more than any camp invite.
The tryout will sort itself out by early October. What happens to a 25th place roster if those questionable tags turn into November is the question nobody in that building wants asked yet.
Source : Panthers invite Nathan Bastian to training camp on PTO
Should the Panthers hand Nathan Bastian a roster spot out of training camp?
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