FORT LAUDERDALE — The Florida Panthers opened training camp this week under a dramatically compressed timeline, with a new collective bargaining agreement cutting camp to two weeks and four preseason games while extending the regular season to 84 games.
Head coach Paul Maurice started on-ice work at the Panthers’ Iceplex, facing the shortest preseason preparation in franchise history. Under the new CBA between the NHL Players’ Association and the NHL, veteran players with at least 100 NHL games are required to play in only two of the four preseason contests — a wrinkle that forces coaches to rethink how they build roster chemistry, Florida Hockey Now reported.
“There isn’t a team in the league that has gone through what the teams will go through,” said Maurice. “This is the shortest that all have ever been a part of.”
Maurice said he plans to flip the traditional camp script by getting veterans into game action immediately rather than easing them in. “We’re going to do it a little differently. I’m going to get the veteran players in games early instead of waiting for it,” he said. “We’ll do the hardest things first.”
General Manager Bill Zito said the new format forced the organization to trim its camp roster significantly. “Last year we were around seventy. This year we’re closer to fifty,” Zito said. “This is a new format for us, where we have the shortened camp. We only have four games.” Zito added that the club left many younger prospects at their current assignments rather than disrupt their development for what could amount to a few days of practice. “It’s an interesting combination of traditionally where we would try to evaluate players and then prepare our team,” he said.
Defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who said players had been running informal workouts for weeks before camp opened, was unfazed by the compressed schedule. “There can be a three-day training camp. We’ll get ourselves prepared,” Ekblad said. “We’ve been in camp for four weeks in our own right, without coaches and stuff like that. We take care of ourselves.”
Injury management looms as a major concern heading into the longer season. The Panthers lost 540 games to injury last season, and as of now, Brad Marchand has been identified as the only player expected to miss the start of the regular season.
Florida opens its preseason Sunday against the Carolina Hurricanes at 7 p.m. in Fort Lauderdale. The 2026-27 regular season begins Sept. 29 with the Panthers at Carolina at 5 p.m. on ESPN, followed by the home opener against the Minnesota Wild on Oct. 10 at 6 p.m.