Rats Roundup - Huberdeau, Barkov Back!

Fridays are, by nature, great. But Fridays where your favorite team announces the return of two key players? Well, that's a great way to kick off the weekend.
Let's dive right in. Welcome back to Rats Roundup!

Huby, Barkov Return

The Panthers announced today that forwards Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov have been cleared to play. Huberdeau, who has yet to play a regular season game after sustaining a lower body injury in the preseason, is expected to make his season debut tonight against the Anaheim Ducks. And Barkov, who was red-hot when he was taken out of the lineup, is also expected to play tonight after missing the last 15 games.
What are the Cats getting as these players return to the ice? Well, here's a reminder for those with short memories.

Happy Friday, indeed.

Trocheck Honored in Saginaw

It's been a wild couple of weeks for Panthers forward Vincent Trocheck. He had a scorching-hot month of January (13 points in 13 games) that coincided with his first career NHL All-Star appearance. Over in Los Angeles, he put up four points for the Atlantic squad on an all-Florida line (Thundercats! https://twitter.com/FlaPanthers/status/825831041684406275) with Lightning players Viktor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov.

Wednesday was another busy day for Trocheck, who made a trip up to Saginaw, Mich., where he played junior hockey. This was no regular trip, though. His old OHL team, the Saginaw Spirit, honored the 23-year-old forward by retiring his number - the first time that's been done in their franchise's history.
The full story and video are available here. 

GIF of the Week:

Tape to tape to tape.

Quick hitters:

-
The Panthers hosted a youth hockey clinic with JetBlue. 
- The latest Matheson's Mailbag is up -
and it's a good one! 
- Tonight is Pride Night at the BB&T Center,

.
- The Panthers-Canadiens game on April 3 will be streamed out-of-market
on some website called Twitter dot com. 
- Marlins players Tom Koehler, JT Realmuto, Dee Gordon and Derek Dietrich
will be in the house next week
when we play the Los Angeles Kings!