Panthers making moves... This has serious implications | Panthers News

The Florida Panthers have made a couple of interesting moves in the last 24 hours. We're going to be talking about who has been called up, who will be on the roster on the 21st, and a look at Carter Verhaage's start to the season. A quick, great jump for him compared to the last couple of seasons. We're going to be talking about that. This is Panthers Digest, guys. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm your host, Greg Andrews. Comment, like, share, subscribe. Hype up the video. I appreciate all of you supporting me, supporting the channel, and supporting your Florida Panthers. So yeah, they made a couple of moves. Cole Reinhardt, Cole Schwent, Sam Lafferty will be talking about everything that has happened as well as Carter Verhaage has been on fire. Kind of a silent assassin, except for that hat trick he just had the other night. But kind of this little silent assassin throughout the beginning of the season. He's out to a very hot start, one of the best ones of his career as a Florida Panther. so we're going to start off though talking about the lines from this morning's practice so there you go guys obviously sticking with the Kachuk brothers and Bennett in the middle Verhaage, Reinhardt, Eller which has been working very well the Luukkonen, Lundell, Vilminus line and then the Imama, Reinhardt, Schwint, Hathaway line that is what is interesting here they sent down Lafferty and now they're working to see okay how is Reinhardt and I kind of thought that this was going to happen sooner than later imama has not really been doing a whole lot offensively defensively he's been pretty good obviously the physical style of play he's been pretty good on the forecheck we've seen the energy that he brings that's what that fourth line is that energy line get in there you know kick the ever-loving you know what out of the other team when they're on the ice take up that you know three to five minutes maybe seven minutes per game it depends on who we're playing obviously but it's gonna be interesting to see i do think that reinhardt and And it's expected for him to be on the roster on the 21st, maybe give Imama a rest. We will see. But I think right now it's going to be between Imama and Reinhardt. We already knew that was kind of the battle in training camp, was between Reinhardt and Imama for that last spot. So good call-ups there. Again, I'm just going to keep going through these right now just to show you exactly what happened. Again, Lo and Sam Lafferty back down to the Charlotte Checkers, and we recalled Cole Schwenke, like I just showed you guys. We're going to show you the numbers right now from Sam Lafferty. Not very good. Zeros across the board, minus four when he's on the ice. Did what he needed to do, I would say. But I think that by bringing in Schwenke and Reinhardt, that will definitely shore up this fourth line a little bit better in terms of let's get a little more production. Let's just not be bodies on the ice skating around. We already know Hathaway is not going anywhere on that fourth line. He has been tremendous. The physical style of play, it's something that Paul Maurice absolutely loves to see he's leading the team in hits right now so he's not going anywhere guys as for Cole Reinhardt, will we actually see him instead of Imama on the 21st these are his numbers with the Charlotte Checkers this season to five games a goal and two assists three points so he has actually put up some decent numbers so far in comparison to Cole Reinhardt and we'll show you I'll show you the numbers on him in just a moment But Cole Schwenke has had a pretty productive season so far with the Charlotte Checkers. Obviously, he's a little bit bigger than Cole Reinhardt, 6'3", 195 pounds, shoots right. A lot of you said, we need somebody that shoots right. Well, here's your guy. Six penalty minutes. We already know what happened to him last year running into Bobrovsky. He ended up breaking his arm and Schwenke missed some time, but that's last season. I think he can definitely make a difference. So let's talk about Cole Reinhardt. They brought him up back from Charlotte on Saturday, but did not need him against the Seattle Kraken, so that's why we didn't see him on the ice, but they did call him up. After making a roster move this weekend, it's changed. Reinhardt should be in the lineup against Ottawa. We'll see. I have a feeling Paul Maurice will probably check to see how are things going in practice. How is that fourth line going with Schwinn? in the middle now and having Hathaway on the side and then Imama against Reinhardt? Who is going to come out on top in this? What are we going to be looking at for a very, very challenging road trip that I talked to you guys about yesterday? It is going to be interesting because I think we do need a little more offensive production considering the teams that we are going to be facing. Here are Cole Reinhardt's numbers on the season. Give me just one second. Here we go. Just waiting. Was looking for that. Come on. Sorry, guys. It always takes a minute. Here we go. Not a whole lot to show there. Only two assists in five games played, six penalty minutes. Cole Schwinn has done a better job. The good news is Cole Schwinn is a center. So, Imama versus Reinhardt, I think we should probably take our chance with Cole Reinhardt and just kind of see how he's going to be on that fourth line, because I do think we need more of a offensive boost there. We're just not getting enough from Imama. I like the way that he plays, but on this road trip against Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and then Winnipeg, we need to have a little more offensive firepower, especially against Ottawa and Pittsburgh. I really do want that. I think we need that on that fourth line. We need guys that can really skate, control the puck, do a great job on the back check as well, and bring in tons of energy. We all know Cole Reinhardt was spectacular in the preseason, or should I say in training camp. So it's going to be interesting to see what will happen. Will Imama still take that spot on the 21st? Or is this more of like, all right, we're going to keep him rested? Plus, the moves are also happening because, as you saw when I opened this up, Gudis is back on the ice. he practiced with Kulikov this morning I really like the way Balinskas has been playing I kind of feel like maybe you live Balinskas in there I know Gudis is technically our you know last sixth man on that defensive pairing but I just like Balinskas's energy he's just been a little bit better than Gudis I think but Gudis's physicality is a little bit better than Balinskas but Balinskas is a faster skater I think he controls the puck a little bit better but again We'll see what happens. But yeah, so they're making roster moves, trying to find a way to get Gudas back, which he should be back for the game on the 21st. Obviously, we know Markstrom's back. Schmidt is back. So yeah, now to talk about the man of the hour right now, Carter Verhaage. We talked about Seth Jones the other day. I'm going to talk about Carter Verhaage. He's on a tear for the Panthers after a slow start for the last couple of seasons. Let's talk about those last couple of seasons. In 2024, well, 2023, 2024, here are his numbers. 20 goals, 33 assists. He did have a 40, I think it was 43 goal season in 2022-23. We know he can score. Right now he's on pace, I believe, for 56 goals on the season. He usually does not start hot like this. He usually reaches the six goal mark sometime in usually December, end of November, beginning of December. It takes him a little while to get going, and then from the months of end of December through about January, he really heats up and gets going. Much different start this season. six goals already he's leading the Florida Panthers tied with Brady Tkachuk and both of them i think are fifth tied for fifth or sixth in the league for goals scored so great start so look at let's look at 2024 2025 season 25 goals 30 assists another very good season very productive but again started scoring late and let's take a look at last season i'm sorry this is this season excuse me six and two so it was 24 25 25 26 now this is this year 26 27 six and two plus six on the ice he's been awesome face-off percentage 50 when he needs to he's been pretty solid there overall great showing by him this year two game winning goals love what he's been doing so let's take a little bit deeper look into this six goals this season for Hagey tied with Kachuk for the team lead through nine games and the two are tied for sixth there you go sixth in the NHL i got ahead of myself excuse me keep on moving here and take a look at this last year number 26 game 26 he got a sixth goal so if you want to think about probably averaging what three games per week three to four so yeah we're looking about two and a half months into the regular season two months into the regular season when he finally gets that sec that sixth goal here you go in the 24-25 season he didn't get the sixth until Florida's 23rd game of the season here's Paul Maurice he says he's better with more traffic it's the chaos i thought both his line mates did a great job of creating that with some short area plays he doesn't need much time actually he excels when there isn't it you guys saw when he shoots it's off his stick in a heartbeat guys a heartbeat let's keep on rocking and rolling here so when he's in the right when he is right in his game and i think he has been all year it is on and off the stick before the goalie can even react it's impressive to watch both on those shots we've seen him shoot the puck like that before and i think he's just finding his footing now i think he's established himself as one of those snipers that wrist shot of his is just wicked he had a couple slappers too they were just unbelievable snipe in the corners he's getting back to what he used to do with that 40 plus goal game uh season excuse me in 2022 2023 like i had said earlier in this video so last thing i'm gonna show you guys about him another good quote what's good is at the 10 game mark you want got you want enough guys feeling especially the ones who put pressure on themselves to produce to be feeling good about their game and certainly Carter Verhaage does feel good about his game he's been playing great. Plus six on the ice, 50% face-off win percentage, six goals, two assists. He's on a great start. I'm loving what I'm seeing from this team. I hope Carter Verhaage keeps steamrolling like he's been and doesn't let up. Let's hope we do see 40 plus goals this year from him. Same thing for Brady Kachuk. I mean, it would be incredible to see three guys on this team with 35 to 45 goals in a season. That would be absolutely remarkable. Same thing for the assists. I mean, imagine if we had three guys on this team with 50-plus assists. That could be Kachuk, Barkov, Seth Jones. Guys, let me know what you think. Comment down below. What do you think about the Panthers' moves? Number one, Cole Reinhart, Cole Schwindt being called up yesterday. Tell me what you think about the moves there. Do you think Mamo will be taken off the roster for the game against Ottawa? Do you want to see Reinhardt, Schwindt, and Hathaway on that fourth line? I think it's going to be great to see them all play together. Let me know what you think there. Let me know what you think about Carter Verhaage's performance so far through the season at this point. Do you think he could hit that 50-plus goals for the first time in his career? I believe it's the first time in his career. Do you think he can get there? Comment down below. Until next time, guys, I'll have some more information, hopefully, about other players, including Brad Marchand and Sasha Barkov. I know they should be, hopefully, starting to skate sometime probably in the next week or so, maybe week and a half. I'll give you updates on that as well. But until the next episode, probably tomorrow, guys, go Cats.