Daily Faceoff: George Richards when asked what the Florida Panthers plan is for goaltender Spencer Knight.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Seravalli: “George, I got to ask you about Spence Knight. Maybe the writing was on the wall when the Panthers signed Anthony Stolarz to his deal. Obviously, he’s the backup right now and you’ve got Sergei Bobrovsky leading the way but it’s pretty rare seeing a goaile making $4.5 million that was thought of as the future of your franchise starting the year in the AHL.
We all know what Spencer Knight went through last season and some of the mental hurdles and obstacles but what’s the plan?
Richards: “Well the plan is for him to play. And when you say as a guy thought of as the goalie of the future, he still is. Spencer Knight is still the goalie of the future. He is in the first year of the three-year extension that pays him $4.5 million. Obviously, signed way before he left the team to join the Players Assistance program.
But he’s going down to Charlotte to get playing time and he was sent there in February just before he left the team for the remainder of the season for the same exact reason. He wasn’t going to get any playing time and they felt like in his development, he needs to play. He doesn’t need to be sitting behind Sergei Bobrovsky. He doesn’t need to be taking the morning skate, the scratch skates. He needs to be playing in games.
And he seems cool with that. We talked to him, he came to development camp, he had to get a waiver from the NHL to attend development camp with the Panthers. He just wanted to get back with the team, get back in action.
And he was like, ‘If I’m in Florida, I’m in Florida. If I’m in Charlotte, I’m in Charlotte. Whatever shall be, shall be.’
He understands that this is an opportunity for him to get some playing time. Like you said, the writing was on the wall. This was the plan from July 1. The Panthers targeted Anthony Stolarz. They wanted a good NHL backup goalie. They wanted to solidify their three goalie positions. They feel like they’ve done so and now that allows Spencer Knight to go and do what he needs to do.
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