The Panthers captain left in the second period of a 4-3 overtime loss at the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.

Barkov will see a doctor Monday to determine the extent of the injury, but Florida’s top center will miss at least 10 games and 24 days by being placed on LTIR.

Barkov went down awkwardly while battling for the puck in the right corner during a power play at 8:07. After getting up, he immediately asked for the Zamboni doors to be opened and threw his gloves down while walking to the locker room.

The 31-year-old was playing just his second game this season after missing all of 2025-26 because of a right knee injury he sustained on the first day of training camp. He had surgery the day after the injury to repair his MCL and ACL.

“We don’t even know the extent of it yet, so it doesn’t feel anything like last year,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of Barkov’s injury last season. “Last year, we were playing on a quarter tank of gas, and we had other guys that were going to leave our lineup in the next week after. So, this one, we’ve got good depth. Everybody’s going to make it.”

Although Barkov was unavailable for Florida last season, he did play for Finland at the 2026 IIHF World Championship in Switzerland in May. He served as captain and had 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in 10 games helping his country win the gold medal.

“It was a difficult thing to go through last year,” Maurice said. “We’ve been through it, so we’ll just deal with it. We handle our day, there’s no point in looking a week out. “We had a good practice (Saturday).”

Barkov played 20:32 in the Panthers’ season opener Tuesday, a 1-0 overtime win against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Selected by Florida with the No. 2 pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, Barkov has 782 points (286 goals, 496 assists) in 806 regular-season games. He also has 81 points (25 goals, 56 assists) in 94 Stanley Cup Playoff games, captaining Florida to back-to-back championships in 2024 and 2025.

He is a three-time winner of the Selke Trophy as the best defensive forward in the NHL (2020-21, 2023-24, 2024-25) and also won the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship and gentlemanly play in 2018-19.

Lars Eller will move up to center the top line with Brady Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart in Barkov’s absence. He’ll get his first chance there at the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; Prime Video, SCRIPPS, KCOP-13, TVAS).

“No one’s going to be able replace Sasha Barkov, and I’m not trying to, I’m just trying to play to my own identity and complement my linemates and I’m playing with really good players no matter what, and I welcome that opportunity,” Eller said. 

Florida is also without forward Brad Marchand, who had offseason surgery for a lower-body injury, and defenseman Gustav Forsling (upper body) did not play Thursday. He will be a game-time decision Sunday.

In addition to Barkov and Marchand last season, current Panthers forwards Matthew Tkachuk, Anton Lundell, Sam Reinhart and Jonah Gadjovich, and defensemen Seth Jones, Eetu Luostarinen and Dmitry Kulikov also missed significant time due to injuries.

Florida recalled forward Sam Lafferty and defenseman Alexander Petrovic from Charlotte of the American Hockey League on Saturday.

“It feels completely different than last year at this time,” Maurice said. “There’s really good depth here now, so we’ve got NHL veteran players that can come in and help look forward.”  

NHL.com independent correspondent Dan Arritt contributed to this report