Panthers Without Four At Practice

It sounded like the Panthers had an awfully quiet practice today, as a number of players were out for different reasons. Steve Reinprecht and Nathan Horton were not practicing due to undisclosed injuries, Radek Dvorak was sitting out with the flu, while Shawn Matthias was reportedly sent down to the minors.

Both Reinprecht and Horton should be both considered day-to-day, as there was no indication that either player suffered any significant injury in their last game.

Dvorak is currently listed as questionable to play in Friday's game at home against the Flyers. That's still a couple days from now, so he should be safe enough to keep in your line-up.

As for Matthias, the numbers speak for themselves. He's not getting the minutes that he needs to develop further as an NHL centre, so it sounds like he'll be heading back down to the minors to get those valuable minutes. This move also suggests that the health of both Reinprecht and Horton isn't too bad, since Matthias would be a key substitution for either one of those two centres.

I can't say that I'm surprised, but none of the four Panthers were taken in the Sheet. Florida was not a hot team in the pool this year, obviously. That being said, there isn't much panic associated with this post in that pool. In the Draft, Horton was taken by Leon, who has two other scratches from his line-up.