At the time of his injury, Ekblad was in the midst of the best season of his career, skating more than 25 minutes per game while ranking tied for first among NHL defenseman in goals with 11.
"It's going to be tough to replace a guy like that, but everybody's got to step up now," Forsling said when asked about the promotion after this morning's skate. "I feel like we've got good depth on the D. We've just got to step up, take another step.
"[Weegar] has been awesome to watch out there. He looks really good. I'm just going to try and step up my game and try to have a good game with him tonight. That's where you want to play, you want to play against the best players in the league."
Getting better with seemingly every game since the Panthers claimed him off waivers from the Hurricanes in January, Forsling has registered five points while averaging 18:56 of ice time over 22 games this season. Heating up on offense, he's also scored twice over his last eight games. With Forsling moving up, Weegar will also shift from the left to his natural side on the right.
"I think Fors has played very well and Weegs has played very well, so you put them together," Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. "They're going to get important minutes, but I think all our pairs are going to get exposure to top lines… Going to be a lot of different partners over the course of the game, but at the same time that pair will probably be together most of the night."
As for Ekblad, Quenneville noted that "all reports have been positive" following his surgery.
"It was a busy, busy day for him yesterday," Quenneville said. "I look forward to talking to him today. I think he handled a real bad situation as good as you possibly can. The encouragement of how positive the surgery was, in a tough situation, was the best that we could've hoped for."
As an additional effort to help fill the void left by Ekblad's absence, the Panthers plan to deploy seven defensemen against the Red Wings, which means that rearguards such as Riley Stillman and Markus Nutivaara should remain in the lineup and see ample action during tonight's game.
Jonathan Huberdeau leads Florida in scoring with 40 points (13 goals, 27 assists) and is coming off a two-goal performance against the Stars on Sunday. Sitting third on the team with 28 points, Carter Verhaeghe paces the team with 15 goals, including posting seven in his last 11 contests.
Manning the crease, Sergei Bobrovsky will hold down the fort for the Panthers. Owning a 13-5-2 record, the 32-year-old has gone 6-3-0 with a .910 save percentage over his last nine games. In three starts against Detroit this season, he's gone 2-1-0 on top of a shiny .942 save percentage.
"Let's keep the team theme and structure together," Quenneville said. "I thought we had two significant wins with some key absences. Off of that, you get some momentum. It'll be a good test for us tonight."
Across the ice, the Red Wings are a lot more dangerous than their record indicates.
Although they sit at the bottom of the Central Division at 12-20-4, they've won four of their last seven games - including a two-game sweep of the Blue Jackets - and have also taken two of six games from the Panthers this season.
Filip Hronek, a defenseman, leads Detroit in scoring with 20 points (two goals, 18 assists), while Robby Fabbri and Dylan Larkin have each tallied 18 points. In six matchups against Florida this season, Larkin, as expected, has been very active on offense, tallying one goal and four assists.
Yet to announce their starting goaltender, the Red Wings could be inclined to go back to veteran Calvin Pickard after he after he turned aside 37 of 39 shots over the course of back-to-back wins over Columbus on Saturday and Sunday.
Overall, Florida boasts an 11-2-1 record over its last 14 games against Detroit.
"That's a different team than we saw earlier in the year," Quenneville said of the Red Wings. "They're checking well, they're playing well and they're giving up nothing. Expect a patient game and play it accordingly. Having the puck is still going to be what we're always talking about."
