His thumb fully healed, Ryan Lomberg is ‘excited to run it back’ with Panthers next year
Ryan Lomberg was happy to give a thumbs-up to show the appendage, which broke in the first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs and kept him out for nearly a month of the Florida Panthers’ improbable run to the 2023 Stanley Cup Final, was finally fully healed.
It has now been more than a month since the Panthers’ season ended with a blowout loss to the Golden Knights in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final, and training camp is already creeping up on the horizon, only about two months away.
Lomberg, who is one of a handful of players who lives in South Florida in the offseason, said there’s already an itch to get back into action.
“In my situation, I had a week off with no activity during the playoffs because of the thumb surgery, so that was my offseason,” the left wing said Monday before reading to children at Sunrise Dan Pearl Library as part of the Panthers’ annual Summer Reading Tour. “As soon as the season did end, I took a week off and my body felt like I could get back after it again.”
Lomberg, who broke the thumb in Game 1 of Round 1 and then got surgery after Game 4, is one of nine everyday forwards back with Florida from last year — only right wing Anthony Duclair and centers Colin White and Eric Staal are gone — and it has the Panthers poised to make another run at the Stanley Cup in the 2023-24 NHL season.
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The 28-year-old Canadian should once again slot in somewhere in the bottom six, where he has thrived during the past two seasons, with 18 points two years ago and 20 last season.
“A lot of the guys aren’t around right now, but from the guys that are, we’re excited to run it back and do it,” Lomberg said. “Obviously, there’s more familiarity now with the coaching staff and stuff like that. We’re excited.
“Obviously, it didn’t work out the way we wanted to, but, as a group, we really enjoyed it. We learned how to get hard and how to win big games, so, for our group, it’s very positive and we’re looking forward to next year.”
Although it will start the season with star defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour both sidelined by injuries, Florida expects to once again be one of the best teams in the NHL — at least once it gets to the postseason.
“From the guys that have been around, we’ve kind of been on both sides of it. We’ve been the Presidents’ Cup champions and we’ve been the 16th seed to get in, and different results both times,” Lomberg said. “For us, it’s all about being happy with where we’re at, besides the standings. If we’re comfortable, we’re working hard, we’re doing the right things — which we were toward the end of the year, especially — we knew that we would have a good opportunity moving forward.”
Panthers bring back Casey Fitzgerald
After playing in multiple games during the Panthers’ run through the Stanley Cup playoffs, Casey Fitzgerald is returning to Florida after signing a one-year, two-way deal with the franchise for $775,000 on Monday.
The defenseman — the son of Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald, an original Panther — played two games in the Cup playoffs and four in the regular season after he was claimed off waivers from the Sabres. The 26-year-old American had one shot and a plus-minus of minus-1 in the regular season, and a shot, a blocked shot and a plus-minus of minus-1 in the playoffs.
Fitzgerald is also a cousin of superstar right wing Matthew Tkachuk.
On a two-way deal, Fitzgerald is exempt from waivers and will be eligible to play for AHL Charlotte (North Carolina) next season.
Florida also brought back another defenseman on a two-way deal Monday, signing John Ludvig to a two-year contract for $1.55 million. The 22-year-old Czech was a third-round pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, spent all of the last three years in the American Hockey League and has yet to appear in an NHL game.
