Projected Lineups for the Lightning vs. Panthers – 04/24/25

The Florida Panthers battle the Tampa Bay Lightning for Game 2 of their first round matchup at Amerant Bank Arena this evening. Here are the projected/expected lineups sourced from NHL.com staff writers, independent correspondents, and others

PANTHERS (3A) at LIGHTNING (2A)

Eastern Conference First Round, Game 2

6:30 p.m. ET; FDSNSUN, SCRIPPS, MAX, truTV, TBS, TVAS2, SN360

Florida leads best-of-7 series 1-0

Panthers Projected Lineup

Carter Verhaeghe — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Brad Marchand
Evan Rodrigues — Nico Sturm — Jesper Boqvist

Gustav Forsling — Seth Jones
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Uvis Balinskis — Nate Schmidt

Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek

Scratched: Tomas Nosek, A.J. Greer, Jonah Gadjovich, Jaycob Megna

Injured: None

Suspended: Aaron Ekblad

Status report:

Ekblad will serve the final game of his 20-game suspension for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program; the defenseman will be eligible to return for Game 3 on Saturday.

Latest from THW:

• Panthers Find a Way to Get an Important Win in Tampa
• Panthers Blow Out Lightning 6-2 in Game 1
• NHL Head Coaches Are Having to Manage the Game More in the Playoffs

Lightning Projected Lineup

Gage Goncalves — Brayden Point — Nikita Kucherov
Jake Guentzel — Nick Paul — Brandon Hagel
Conor Geekie — Yanni Gourde — Mitchell Chaffee
Zemgus Girgensons — Luke Glendening

Victor Hedman — JJ Moser
Ryan McDonagh — Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg — Nick Perbix
Darren Raddysh

Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson

Scratched: Cam Atkinson

Injured: Oliver Bjorkstrand (lower-body injury), Anthony Cirelli (undisclosed)

Status Report: 

Cirelli, a forward, did not participate in the morning skate and is questionable.

Latest from THW:

• 3 Takeaways From Lightning’s Brutal Game 1 Loss
• Lightning & Crunch Partnership Creates Best NHL/AHL Postseason Run
• Panthers Blow Out Lightning 6-2 in Game 1