According to Harvey Fialkov of the Sun Sentinal, Adam Pardy will be attending Florida Panthers camp on a professional tryout. The team of course will be without top blueliner Aaron Ekblad for part of camp as he plays for team North America at the World Cup of Hockey.
While it would be pretty surprising to see Pardy crack the roster following training camp, he will provide veteran competition for the younger players, as well as a toughness and edge lacking on the Panthers back end since their trade of Erik Gudbranson to the Vancouver Canucks. Pardy has 52 points across an NHL career that has seen him hit the ice 338 times for five different teams. Last year he got into just 23 games, split between the Oilers and Jets.
For the Panthers, they’ve already done their offseason shopping and indeed Fialkov reports that Pardy’s addition is probably the last before camp opens. By locking up their young core and signing some key free agents, Florida has positioned themselves well to compete for the Stanley Cup for the foreseeable future.