Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

CORAL SPRINGS — A new NHL season began on Tuesday night and a new career will start Thursday when Mackie Samoskevich makes his debut for the Florida Panthers.

On Tuesday afternoon, Samoskevich spoke to the gathered media at the IceDen a day after he spoke to our Colby D. Guy and initially expressed his excitement at not only making the team but getting a chance to play in his first NHL game on Thursday against the Wild.

The whole Samoskevich family is flying to Minnesota for the big game.

“They were just waiting for that news for a little bit,’’ Samoskevich said on Tuesday. “They were pretty pumped for me. They helped me the whole way through. My sisters were pretty jacked up as well.’’

There was a lot going on Tuesday.

The Panthers announced their opening roster in the morning — then made an addendum to it in the afternoon when it ‘recalled’ Justin Sourdif from Charlotte when Aaron Ekblad was officially placed on LTIR.

Oh yeah, real hockey games were also played.

More on those below…

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