Forsling ascends to top red line pairing
Gustav Forsling knew he had no time to delay when the Florida Panthers came calling in the final days before the 2020-21 NHL season began.
January suddenly became a whirlwind for the defenseman. On Jan. 8, the Carolina Hurricanes waived him — a victim of their surplus of talent on defense, and the Panthers claimed him the next day.
Florida spent the entire offseason retooling itself on the fringes, with a firstyear general manager and a second-year coach, and the Panthers kept tinkering all the way up until the week before the regular season began.
In 23 games, Forsling has two goals and four assists and leads all of the Panthers’ healthy defensemen with 2.1 shots on goal per game. On Tuesday, Florida bumped him up to its top defensive pairing, playing next to defenseman MacKenzie Weegar in the wake of star defenseman Aaron Ekblad’s likely season-ending leg fracture, and Forsling delivered an assist in the Panthers’ 4-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings.
Coach Joel Quenneville, who previously coached Forsling with the Chicago Blackhawks from 2016-19, liked what he saw from the 24-year-old on the top pairing, and Forsling will get a chance to build on his success Thursday when Florida (23-9-4) wraps up a two-game series with the Red Wings (12-21-4) at 7 p.m. at the BB&T Center.
“Fors has been really good for us. Weegs has been pretty good and not playing the right side in a long time he seemed to be comfortable over there, too, so that pair is strong,” Quenneville said Tuesday. “He’s playing very well. He’s playing important minutes. In Ek’s absence, all of a sudden that first matchup is a big ask in a short amount of time.”
PANTHERS SIGN TOP PROSPECT KNIGHT
The Panthers’ firstround pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, Spencer Knight signed a three-year contract with
Washington N.Y. Islanders Pittsburgh Boston Philadelphia N.Y. Rangers New Jersey Buffalo Central
Tampa Bay Florida Carolina Nashville Chicago Columbus Dallas Detroit West
Vegas Colorado Minnesota St. Louis Arizona
Los Angeles San Jose Anaheim North
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
35 23 8 4 50 121 104 36 22 10 4 48 106 84 36 23 11 2 48 117 94 32 18 9 5 41 88 77 35 17 14 4 38 107 129 35 16 15 4 36 112 94 34 13 16 5 31 83 106 35 723 5 19 77 123 GP W L OT Pts GF GA
35 24 9 2 36 23 9 4 34 23 8 3 37 19 17 1 37 17 15 5 37 14 15 8 33 11 12 10 37 12 21 4 GP W LOT
50 124 85 50 119 99 49 113 86 39 95 109 39 106 115 36 94 118 32 91 91 28 80 119 Pts GF GA
33 24 8 1 49 108 75 34 22 8 4 48 118 77 33 21 10 2 44 97 82 35 16 13 6 38 100 113 35 16 14 5 37 92 103 33 13 14 6 32 92 94 34 14 16 4 32 95 118 37 11 20 6 28 83 123 GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Toronto 36 23 10 3 49 119 92 Winnipeg 37 22 13 2 46 120 102 Edmonton 37 22 14 1 45 122 107 Montreal 32 15 8 9 39 104 87 Calgary 37 16 18 3 35 96 112 Vancouver 37 16 18 3 35 100 120 Ottawa 36 12 20 4 28 94 135 NOTE: Two points for win, one OT loss.
Top four teams in each division qualify for playoffs under this season’s realignment.
WEDNESDAY
Buffalo 6, Philadelphia 1 Toronto 3, Winnipeg 1
Arizona at Colorado, late
Los Angeles at Vegas, late Calgary at Vancouver, late Minnesota at San Jose, late
THURSDAY
Detroit at Florida, 7
Columbus at Tampa Bay, 7 Montreal at Ottawa, 7
N.Y. Rangers at Buffalo, 7 Pittsburgh at Boston, 7 Washington at N.Y. Islanders, 7 Carolina at Chicago, 8
Dallas at Nashville, 8
Minnesota at Vegas, 10:30
TUESDAY
Florida 4, Detroit 1
Columbus 3, Tampa Bay 1 Montreal 4, Edmonton 0
Boston 5, New Jersey 4 (SO) N.Y. Rangers 5, Washington 2 Chicago 2, Carolina 1
Nashville 3, Dallas 2 (OT)
Thursday: Detroit, 7 (FSFL) Saturday: Columbus, 7 (FSFL) Sunday: Columbus, 5 (FSFL)
Florida after wrapping up his career with Boston College. He immediately becomes one of the NHL’s top goaltending prospects after leading to the United States to a gold medal at the 2021 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships with a 5-1-0 record, 1.63 goals against average, and three shutouts.
As a sophomore this season, Knight is a finalist for Hobey Baker Award, given to college hockey’s best player. In 21 games, he went 16-4-1 with a .932 save percentage, 2.18 goals against average and three shutouts.
David Wilson: 305-376-3406, @DBWilson2