Nosek’s injury keeping him out ‘weeks, not days.’ Who might replace him in Panthers lineup?

Tomas Nosek, who entered training camp as the favorite to be the Florida Panthers’ fourth-line center, will be out “weeks, not days” after sustaining an upper-body injury in Game 2 of Florida’s doubleheader against the Nashville Predators on Sunday, Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Tuesday.

The injury occurred in the first period when Nosek crashed into the boards behind the Predators’ net after being tripped by Nashville defenseman Jeremy Lauzon.

Maurice did say the injury is not a concussion.

“It’s going to take a few days to know the extent of this injury,” Maurice said. “It depends on how fast he heals. But this is not going to be short term. So we’re weeks, not days, from where we’re at right now.”

Nosek, 32, signed a one-year, $775,000 contract with the Panthers this offseason to help replenish the team’s forward depth. On Sunday before the injury, Nosek centered wingers and fellow newcomers to the team AJ Greer and Jesper Boqvist — a look that very well could have been be the Panthers’ fourth line to begin the season.

With Nosek now sidelined, that opens the door for other players in camp to crack the roster. Exactly who gets the opportunity will depend on how the Panthers want to proceed.

They could go with a young player such as 24-year-old Patrick Giles, who spent the past two seasons at Charlotte of the American Hockey League and has had a strong training camp so far. Giles scored a goal and added an assist in Game 2 of the doubleheader against Nashville while centering a line with Jonah Gadjovich and Josh Davies.

Or they could go with a veteran such as Zac Dalpe, who is entering his fourth season with the Panthers organization.

“For all of those guys, there’s now an opportunity,” Maurice said. “Tomas might heal faster than that. He may be right for Opening Night. I don’t know. I’m just kind of hedging a little bit on that one. I don’t know the answer to yet. But, yes, all of the players that have center ice experience are going to get a real good look here in the next three games.”

More injury updates

Maurice said forward Mackie Samoskevich re-aggravated the upper-body injury he entered camp with and now likely won’t make his camp debut until later this week.

Samoskevich was originally scheduled to be a full participant in practice for the first time on Tuesday.

“He had kind of like a flare up when he went back on the ice,” Maurice said. “It didn’t get worse. We want to get him cleaned up.”

Meanwhile, fellow forward Justin Sourdif left practice Tuesday after sliding into the boards.

“First thought when you looked at it was maybe he went in head first,” Maurice said. “There isn’t a sign now that he’s got a concussion; he just cut his face up a little bit and then he’s got some upper body stiffness.”

Samoskevich and Sourdif are both contenders to fill out Florida’s third line that features Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell.

Neither of the rookies is slated to play in Florida’s preseason game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday at Orlando’s Kia Center.