NHL training camps open with Panthers' Tkachuk out, Oilers captain McDavid unsigned

The back-to-back champion Florida Panthers start their Stanley Cup three-peat bid without Matthew Tkachuk, Connor McDavid doesn't have a contract beyond this season and nearly one-third of NHL teams have a new head coach.

Training camps open around the league this week with questions from Edmonton to South Florida, many of which will not be resolved by the time another banner is raised and the puck is dropped on opening night Oct. 7. It's the final season at 82 games before expanding to 84, shortening camps and reducing exhibition play.

Also gone next year is mandatory fitness testing.

"Next year," Carolina's Seth Jarvis said. "I still got one more year."

"Long overdue, Seattle captain Jordan Eberle quipped: "I wish that we did [away with] the fitness testing about 10 years ago."

That's all part of the next collective bargaining agreement, which maintains hockey's fruitful era of labor peace until at least 2030. Without that looming over the sport, all 32 teams hit the ice for practice Thursday with dreams -- however realistic -- of playing all the way until June.

Tkachuk's injury from the immensely popular 4 Nations Face-Off in February cost him the final couple of months of last season. He returned to help the Panthers win the Cup again, then had surgery to repair a sports hernia and torn adductor muscle.

"We anticipate him being out until December-ish, but don't hold me to that," general manager Bill Zito said. "That's my internet medical degree."

That is plenty of time for Tkachuk to be ready to play for the U.S. at the Olympics in Milan, Italy.

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