NOTEBOOK: Competition 'Never Been Greater' as Panthers Open Camp

In today's Baptist Health Practice Notebook, head coach Joel Quenneville foresees plenty of competition during Florida's training camp, Anthony Duclair gets a great opportunity and more!
SUNRISE, Fla. -Coming together in an official capacity for the first time since the Stanley Cup Qualifiers in August, the Florida Panthers opened up their training camp at BB&T Center on Sunday.
And even though the morning consisted primarily of just medical examinations, fitness testing and fulfilling media obligations (the team's first on-ice session with come on Monday), Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov professed that simply being back at work was a huge step forward.

"Overall, I think everybody's just excited to get going again," Barkov said. "It's been a while. We played four games in the last nine months. We're hockey players. We want to play hockey."
With their abbreviated 56-game season set to get underway on Jan. 14 with a matchup against the Dallas Stars in Sunrise, Barkov and the Panthers will have less than two weeks of practices and participate in no preseason games before the puck drops and the 2020-21 season begins.
But, after a seemingly never-ending offseason, players believe that's more than enough time.
"I think we had enough time to get ready physically," Barkov said. "We just need a couple practices, a couple scrimmages on the ice and we'll be ready for the season… No exhibition games or anything, but it's going to be the same for every team. We're going to be ready."
With players already physically and mentally in a good spot heading into the season, the main focus of training camp will be figuring out exactly where they all fit on the ice. After all, there's no shortage of new faces. Of the 39 players in camp, only 14 played a game with Florida last year.
When asked about what players he's most looking forward to seeing in camp, Panthers coach Joel Quenneville scanned a roster in front of him before listing off nearly every player on it. The talent is certainly there on paper, but it'll be up to the coaching staff to figure out how to utilize it.
Gone from last year's everyday lineup are Mike Hoffman, Evgenii Dadonov, Mike Matheson, Colton Sceviour and others, while newcomers such as Patric Hornqvist, Alex Wennberg, Radko Gudas, Markus Nutivaara, Anthony Duclair and Ryan Lomberg were brought in this offseason.
It's likely that several of the organization's top prospects will also make a strong push for roster spots throughout the duration of camp, a group highlighted by two dynamic forwards in former first-round picks Owen Tippett (10th overall, 2017) and Grigori Denisenko (15th overall, 2018).
With so little of the lineup locked in, the hope is that competition will breed excellence in camp.
"A lot up for grabs," Quenneville said. "The opportunity has never been greater. In all areas, I think everybody's got a chance to nail something and get a little more quality in their game."
As for the outline of a camp schedule, Quenneville said he expects every player to get multiple opportunities in different spots throughout the "first few days" on the ice as the team's roster will be split into what he describes as "two balanced groups" to make sure everyone gets looked at.
From there, the team will start to work on special teams around Day 3 of camp. About four or five days into it, Quenneville believes the team's Opening Night roster will take shape.
"In a short amount of time we're going to get to find out about some of our new guys," Quenneville said. "I think everybody's excited about seeing how [the rookies] fit in with NHL players as well. We've got several guys that are going to be pushing for competition here."
In the end, regardless of which players end up slotting in where, Quenneville does already know exactly what he wants the team's identity to be as they aim to push for the playoffs this season.
"We want to make sure that we're more competitive on a game-to-game basis and that [our] competitiveness is contagious," Quenneville said. "It's going to be standard that we compete all-out and make each other better by pushing one another in a positive fashion.
"That's where we want to get to. That camaraderie is healthy. There's been a lot of different changes here. I think the purpose we want to get to is that we want to make sure that one of the identities that we grasp is that we want to make sure that we're hardworking and playing all-out."

DUCLAIR STARTS ON TOP

Even though we won't get a look at lines until tomorrow, Quenneville did offer a sneak peek.
Entering his first season with the Cats after signing a one-year deal on Dec. 19, Anthony Duclair is expected to start camp on the team's top line alongside Jonathan Huberdeau and Barkov -- a spot Quenneville noted that several players might get a chance to claim in the coming weeks.
"We'll see how that works," Quenneville said. "He'll get that opportunity."

A gifted goal-scorer, Duclair, who should only just be beginning to enter the meaty prime of his career at 25 years old, is coming off an All-Star season with the Ottawa Senators in 2019-20 in which he registered 40 points -- including netting a career-high 23 goals -- in 66 games played. In 87 games with Ottawa over parts of the past two seasons, he lit the lamp 31 times.
"I was really excited when I heard that he was going to sign with us and come here," Barkov said of Duclair. "He's such a talented guy - really, really good offensively, really good skater, really good at playing hockey. We always want to have those guys on the team. I'm looking forward to playing with him. You always want to play with great guys, and he's one of them."
For Duclair, there's no denying the great opportunity that's been presented to him.
Over the past two seasons, Huberdeau and Barkov have easily been two of the league's most-productive forwards on offense. In fact, since 2018-19, Huberdeau ranks ninth in the NHL with 170 points (53 goals, 117 assists), while Barkov sits 13th with 158 points (55 goals, 103 assists).
Given his knack for putting the puck in the back of the net, Duclair could fit right in. "I heard they're planning to play him on our line, but we haven't talked to anyone yet," Barkov said.
"To play with that type of guy would be awesome. To get good chemistry with him would be awesome as well. He can do a lot of damage in the offensive zone."

BARKOV'S BIG OFFSEASON

While it comes as no surprise, Barkov certainly put in a lot of work this offseason.
Heading into his eighth season in the NHL (time flies, doesn't it?), the 25-year-old center only recently returned from his hometown of Tampere, Finland a few weeks ago after spending the past several months rigorously training with his good friend, Winnipeg Jets sniper Patrik Laine.
"I've been working really hard," Barkov said. "I've tried to work out as much as possible and as hard as possible. I feel like I took a couple steps forward physically and mentally. I'm more ready for this season than, for example, than I was a couple season before. I'm just looking at what I can do better - if I can skate, better, can be faster, can be stronger, things like that."

As part owner of his hometown Liiga team Tappara -- an investment he made back in June --Barkov said he and Laine also spent some time training with the organization when they could.
"Whenever we got a chance to skate with the team, we skated with the team to get a good team pace and get like drills with the team," Barkov said. "It helps a lot during the summer to skate with a team. We hadn't been training together at all. [Laine] had been training in a different city every summer, so he decided to join me. It was good for me. I didn't have to be alone. I get to train with him. We really enjoyed that. We pushed each other forward and pushed each other every practice, every gym session or whatever. I think we both got better this summer."
Not alone in going above and beyond this offseason, Barkov hopes that the work that he and his teammates put in before training camp will help them get off to a necessary hot start in 2020-21.
"The last two weeks I've been here and almost everyone else has been here for that time," Barkov said. "We already have a good atmosphere in the locker room. Everybody knows each other well. When the team practices start, it's going to be even better because we haven't been all together on the ice yet. It starts tomorrow. Everyone's really excited and can't wait to start."
Stay tuned to FloridaPanthers.com and @FlaPanthers on Twitter for updates throughout camp.