Duclair nears return for Panthers. The latest on Florida’s badly missed 30-goal scorer

Anthony Duclair, who has yet to play this season after scoring 31 goals last year and then injured his Achilles tendon in the offseason, is finally getting close to a return for the Florida Panthers.

The right wing skated for the first time since the injury Tuesday and the Panthers are no longer measuring his timetable in terms of months.

“We’re talking about weeks,” coach Paul Maurice said Wednesday. “We are no longer talking about months.”

With its offense seriously regressing after averaging leading the NHL with 4.11 goals in the regular season last year, Florida has badly missed Duclair, and the speed and shooting ability he brought to a historically great offense last season.

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The Panthers last year became the first team in more than 25 years to average more than four goals per game in the regular season. This year, Florida entered Thursday averaging just 3.37 goals per game with the sixth-worst shooting percentage in the league.

Duclair led all Panthers regulars last year by shooting 18.6 percent, thanks both to his reliable shot from the circle on power plays and his speed creating regular breakaways for Florida.

The next step for Duclair in his return is to ramp up “to more intense skating,” Maurice said, and he’s on track to get there in the next two weeks.

Duclair did not skate Wednesday, as the Panthers continue to take a cautious approach with the 27-year-old winger given the severity of the injury.

Duclair, who’s in the second season of a three-year contract worth $9 million, injured the Achilles tendon in his left foot during offseason training in June and underwent surgery in July.

“Because of the injury and the severity of it there really isn’t much coming back early on this one,” Maurice said. “He’s got to get trained again, and then he’s going to have to get back in hockey shape, but he’s on the mend.”

Especially this week, Florida is feeling Duclair’s absence.

The Panthers finished their rout of the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday with only 10 healthy forwards after forwards Colin White and Chris Tierney went down with injuries, and Florida was already missing center Anton Lundell with an upper-body injury, forward Carter Verhaeghe due to an illness and right wing Patric Hornqvist — on long-term injured reserve through at least Christmas — because of a concussion, leaving the Panthers without a full third of their season-opening forwards group.

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With Florida struggling just to stay in postseason contention after winning the Presidents’ Trophy last year, Duclair is badly missed. The Canadian forward’s return sometime this winter could go a long way toward helping the Panthers recapture their identity from last year.

“You miss him, but when you’re healthy, you think you’ve got enough pieces where you’re going to be fine. When you start to feel it is when you get five or six down,” Maurice said. “You think, Boy, it’d be nice to have a guy who scored 30 goals and skates like the wind, which any team would want.”