Projected Lineups for the Lightning vs Panthers – 4/26/25

The Florida Panthers battle the Tampa Bay Lightning for Game 3 of their first round matchup at Amerant Bank Arena this afternoon. Here are the projected/expected lineups sourced from NHL.com staff writers, independent correspondents, and others.

LIGHTNING (2A) at PANTHERS (3A)

Eastern Conference First Round, Game 3

1 p.m. ET; FDSNSUN, SCRIPPS, MAX, truTV, TBS, SN, TVAS

Florida leads best-of-7 series 2-0

Lightning projected lineup

Jake Guentzel — Brayden Point — Nikita Kucherov
Nick Paul — Anthony Cirelli — Gage Goncalves
Conor Geekie — Yanni Gourde — Mitchell Chaffee
Zemgus Girgensons — Luke Glendening — Cam Atkinson

Victor Hedman — J.J. Moser
Ryan McDonagh — Erik Cernak
Nick Perbix — Emil Lilleberg

Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson

Scratched: Darren Raddysh

Injured: Oliver Bjorkstrand (lower body)

Suspended: Brandon Hagel

Status report:

Gourde and Cirelli did not participate in practice Friday (maintenance) but each is expected to play.

Latest for THW:

• Lightning’s Brandon Hagel Suspended One Game For Barkov Hit
• Panthers Out Muscle Lightning to Go Up 2-0 in Series
• Projected Lineups for the Lightning vs. Panthers – 04/24/25

Panthers projected lineup

Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Carter Verhaeghe — Evan Rodrigues — Brad Marchand
A.J. Greer — Nico Sturm — Jesper Boqvist

Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Nate Schmidt — Seth Jones
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov

Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek

Scratched: Tomas Nosek, Jonah Gadjovich, Jaycob Megna, Uvis Balinskis

Injured: Aleksander Barkov (undisclosed)

Status report

Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Friday that Barkov, a center, had not been ruled out for Game 3 but also had not yet been cleared to play.

Latest for THW:

• Panthers Out Muscle Lightning to Go Up 2-0 in Series
• Panthers Find a Way to Get an Important Win in Tampa
• Panthers Blow Out Lightning 6-2 in Game 1