Nashville prospects to face Florida's in mid-September games

The Nashville Predators have announced that as part of the pre-season their prospects will head to Florida to take on the Panthers' prospects on September 15 & 16. Last fall, they traveled to Atlanta for a similar set of games. According to a blog post by Bryan Mullen at The Tennessean, it's expected that in 2011 Florida will send their kids up here.

Follow after the jump for the team's press release, which also notes that the prospects will report to training camp on September 13.

From the team:

Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced today that a team of Nashville Predators prospects will travel to Sunrise, Fla., for a pair of games against Florida Panthers prospects on Sept. 15 (6 p.m. CT) and Sept. 16 (11 a.m. CT) at Saveology.com Iceplex.

This marks the third straight season Predators prospects have played a Southeastern Division opponent during their camp, which starts Sept. 13 with testing. In 2008, they hosted the Atlanta Thrashers for two games at Bridgestone Arena, and in 2009 a team of rookies traveled to Duluth, Ga., for games at the Thrashers practice facility.

Prospects expected to attend the camp include first rounders Jonathon Blum (2007), Chet Pickard (2008), Ryan Ellis (2009) and Austin Watson (2010) and second rounders Blake Geoffrion (2006), Roman Josi (2008) and Charles-Olivier Roussel (2009)

The contests will precede the opening of 2010 Training Camp, which occurs the following day, Sept. 17, with testing and physicals.  The Predators' first day on the ice will be Saturday, Sept. 18 at the Centennial Sportsplex and they will play six preseason contests from Sept. 23-Oct. 3, including three at home (Sept. 23 vs. Carolina, Sept. 25 vs. Washington and Sept. 27 vs. Atlanta).

Individual game tickets for Nashville's preseason games at the Bridgestone Arena will go on sale in September.  For information regarding 2010-11 Nashville Predators tickets, visit nashvillepredators.com.