TWITTER: @GeorgeRichards
WASHINGTON -- The Panthers have had a number of their top draft picks coming up through the system over the past few weeks. On Friday, Florida gave one of its former first round picks away.
Defenseman Keaton Ellerby, the 10th overall selection in 2007, was traded to the Los Angeles Kings early Friday in exchange for a fifth round selection in the upcoming draft.
Ellerby left the Panthers team hotel in Washington early Friday morning to join his new team in Detroit. Ellerby could make his debut with the defending Stanley Cup champions against the Red Wings in a nationally televised game Sunday.
A healthy scratch Thursday in Philadelphia, Ellerby ended up playing in 125 games over four seasons with the Panthers. Ellerby scored two goals with 15 assists.
"Defensemen take time to development and sometimes a change of scenery helps someone,'' coach Kevin Dineen said after Friday's afternoon workout in northern Virginia.
"When someone leaves your organization, you always wish them well. He was a good serving Panther and we hope he takes the full-time step he couldn't make here. Last year we couldn't find a full-time place for him. He's still a young guy. He has a lot of hockey left in him.''
Assistant general manager Mike Santos said Friday that Ellerby was a casualty of a numbers crunch. The Panthers will have seven defensemen back once Ed Jovanovski returns from a knee injury as Ellerby had found playing time in Florida scarce over the past few seasons.
"We're getting healthier and had to make some sort of roster move and expose a player to waivers,'' Santos said. "At some point we will have too many bodies. This was a player another team an had interest in so we felt we had to make a move.''
Santos said the Panthers will go into Saturday's game against the Capitals with the six defensemen they played with Thursday in Philadelphia.
-- The Capitals may be off to a rough start but don't expect the Panthers to take them lightly on Saturday night.
Washington, which has won just twice all season, won all three home meetings between the two teams last year as Florida edged the Capitals by two points for the Southeast Division title.
The Panthers have lost eight of the past nine games held at Verizon Center.
"We're not trying to stoke the fire because we didn't have any success in here last year,'' Dineen said. "That stings a little bit.''
-- According to the Panthers, Thursday's shootout victory was Florida's first in just two rounds.
On Thursday, Jose Theodore stopped both of Philadelphia's shots while teammates Jonathan Huberdeau and Peter Mueller scored. There was no need for a third shot since Florida had an insurmountable 2-0 lead.
-- Huberdeau's backhand-to-forehand move during his shootout was slick enough to earn No. 6 on ESPN's top 10 plays of the night.
"I’ve been working on those moves with those guys quite a bit out there,'' Dineen joked after the game.
-- Stephen Weiss' first goal of the season came at a good time Thursday as he tied the score at 2 midway through the third. Even though Weiss hadn't been scoring, Dineen said he had been doing enough to help the Panthers.
"Weiss is a really important piece of our puzzle,'' Dineen said, "and I had him out there quite a bit in those penalty kills out there in the end, and he scores a big goal for us to tie things up for us. It’s the little things, the face offs, the little board battles, when you’re trying to kill a penalty at the end of the game, that’s what makes him a special player.''
-- Dineen said he and Alex Kovalev spoke before the season started about his wanting the 39-year-old forward to take some games off. Kovalev was Florida's healthy scratch Thursday as Jack Skille returned to the lineup after sitting the previous two games.
Skille scored Florida's initial goal Thursday so Dineen most definitely has a decision to make for Saturday's game.
"That's a good thing for a coach,'' Dineen said. "Sometimes we're looking for energy, sometimes we're looking for skill. Alex can bring both.''
SATURDAY: PANTHERS AT CAPITALS
When, Where: 7 p.m.; Verizon Center, Washington
TV/Radio: FSF; WQAM-560
The series: Capitals lead 52-43-9
The game: Florida lost four of six to the Capitals last season yet still had two more points in the standings and edged Washington for the first division title in franchise history. The Panthers have won three of the past four games and have a four-game point streak going. The Capitals are coming off a 5-2 home loss to the Penguins.
