Preparing to close out their regular season with a crucial two-game set against the intrastate rival Lightning, Verhaeghe, Bennett and Hornqvist all look to be on track to return for the first game on Saturday, while Driedger is likely to be in net during the second matchup on Monday.
"Looks promising," Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. "Everyone looks like they're ready to go. We'll know at morning skate [on Saturday], but I would think that everybody's ready."
During practice, Verhaeghe, who sat out the last 12 games with an upper-body injury, was back on the top line alongside Aleksander Barkov and Anthony Duclair. Having a career year prior to his injury, the 25-year-old has notched 35 points (17 goals, 18 assists) in 42 games this season.
Held out of the last five games with an upper-body injury, Hornqvist, who sits fifth on the team in goals (14) and points (32), was skating on the third line with Alex Wennberg and Frank Vatrano.
As for Bennett, who was only sidelined for one game with an upper-body injury, he was right back centering the second line, flanked by Jonathan Huberdeau and Owen Tippett. In only nine games since being acquired by Florida, the 24-year-old has tallied five goals and eight assists.
Despite these injuries, Quenneville was impressed with how the Panthers dealt with adversity.
"Throughout the last six weeks or something, we were missing a lot of key pieces," Quenneville said. "We had our team picture [this morning], and then everyone was around, and everyone was practicing together. It looks like that could be the playoff look.
"The nice thing is that you need depth, you need this, you need a lot of things to go your way come playoff time. We had some guys getting some turns, getting some opportunities to play in critical situations at big moments, and they handled it."
With the postseason on the horizon, and coming off a well-deserved two days off in the midst of an incredibly jampacked schedule, Huberdeau said it was nice to have everyone back together.
"Today was fun," said Huberdeau, who leads the team in scoring with 59 points (19 goals, 40 assists). "We haven't practiced in a while. Getting a couple days off was a good refresh for our bodies. We've been a better team this year. It was fun to get out there and practice."
Although they're no longer in the hunt for first place, the Panthers (35-14-5) can still potentially lock down home-ice advantage in the first round if they are able to take care of business against the Lightning (36-14-3), who play one game in Dallas on Friday before heading to South Florida.
However, regardless of how the seeding in the Central Division shakes out, it appears the two Sunshine State squads are on a collision course to meet in the playoffs for the first time.
"It's tight," Huberdeau said of the battle for positioning within the division. "We're probably going to play Tampa [in the postseason], but who knows? We're going to play these games as hard as we can. They're not exhibitions. You still want to win the game, feel good about your team."