Alekser Barkov Operated surgery on his right knee, Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice announced Friday.
Maurice said that the Panthers hope to have more information later in the day.
“Barky” has been operated on, “said Maurice on Friday morning. “If he comes out, we get final information about how the operation went and we get all the information and it will be quite detailed. We will really be transparent with it. Hopefully that should happen later today.”
The captain of Panthers was helped from the ice on Thursday, making his right leg.
Thursday was the first time that Panthers veterans were practiced on the ice. Maurice let them train the first week of training camp.
“That is why you can’t bubblewrap, keep them out of games or keep a player. It can happen everywhere, in practice,” said Maurice. “You don’t want this to happen, but it might as well happen so that we can deal with it and learn much more about the other players we have.
“His numbers were from the graph, he felt great. It was 20 minutes in the first training and we hadn’t gotten into something swords yet. He didn’t breathe heavily. It’s a Fluke game.”
It is the last injury for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, who open their season at home against the Chicago Blackhawks on October 7 (5 pm et; ESPN, SN1, TVAs).
The Panthers are already starting the season without topuit Matthew Tkachuk (lower body) and fourth control center Tomas Nosek Because of what general manager Bill Zito called a ‘long -term injury’.
“There is no hiding, that’s a hole. That’s the big man,” said Maurie. “He is such an important piece in that dressing room. What we will learn now are some of the other leaders in the room. We will see other players and at the end of the day I know that there is the idea of ’next man’ and I will all get that.
Barkov is a triple winner of the Selke Trophy (2020-21, 2023-24, 2024-25) voted as the best defensive attacker of the competition. He was selected by the Panthers with the number 2 pick in the NHL version of 2013, had 71 points last season (20 goals, 51 assists) in 67 games and has 782 points (286 goals, 496 assists) in 804 regular season races.
In the last two postsease, Barkov has 44 points (14 goals, 30 assists) in 47 games, a point behind Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe For the most under Panthers skaters.
“You get a day to be sad. I had my day yesterday,” said Maurice.
NHL.com Independent correspondent George Richards contributed to this report
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