Up Against Cap, Florida Panthers Make Surprising Roster Moves

FORT LAUDERDALE — Up against the NHL salary cap, the Florida Panthers made a couple of surprising roster moves on Monday heading into tonight’s season-opener against the Boston Bruins.

Goalie Spencer Knight was the biggest name sent to AHL Charlotte — but it was not due to his play on the ice.

Instead, his salary simply would have put the Panthers over the NHL’s $88 million salary cap.

Knight, who did not have to go through waivers, has a cap hit of $4.5 million; $1.15 million of that is taken off the salary cap by him going (albeit temporarily) to the minors.

According to PuckPedia.com, the Panthers are only $130,455 under the salary cap.

The difference in salary cap hit by keeping Chris Driedger and his $795,000 salary over Knight is $355,000.

Florida also sent rookie forward Patrick Giles to Charlotte after a strong camp as it goes into tonight’s opener with 22 players on the roster instead of the league maximum 23.

MacKenzie Entwhistle, who would have been subject to waivers, made the initial 22-man roster as the 13th forward.

Entwhistle is not expected to play in Tuesday’s opener against the Bruins.

• The Florida Panthers Got Their Championship Rings. They’re Spectacular

Florida will open with its J-Train fourth line of Jesper Boqvist centering a fourth line with Jonah Gadjovich and A.J. Greer when it begins its defense of the Stanley Cup tonight.

Tomas Nosek, Florida’s expected fourth-line center, was hurt on his second shift of the preseason and will start the season on Injured Reserve.

“Obviously, we’re cap challenged,’’ general manager Bill Zito told FHN on Monday night. “Cap challenged teams typically have fluidity in regard to their roster. I would anticipate we would have a sort of ever-changing landscape as we navigate the season.

“Once we get through [Tuesday], we have a different landscape and an capacity to absorb.’’