{"id":171949,"date":"2025-09-27T02:13:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T02:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/171949\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T02:13:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T02:13:07","slug":"aleksander-barkov-undergoing-knee-surgery-out-seven-to-nine-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/171949\/","title":{"rendered":"Aleksander Barkov Undergoing Knee Surgery, Out Seven-To-Nine Months"},"content":{"rendered":"

6:04 PM: The team released<\/a> an update on Barkov, noting that he sustained injuries to his ACL and MCL.\u00a0 The surgery has now been performed and carries a typical recovery time between seven and nine months.\u00a0 The short end of that timeline would potentially give him a chance of returning in the second round of the playoffs while the long end would mean that he would miss the entire postseason as well.<\/p>\n

10:39 AM: Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov<\/a>\u00a0needs surgery to repair the right knee injury he sustained in his first practice session of training camp yesterday, George Richards of Florida Hockey Now<\/a> reports. There\u2019s no timeline for his return, and there\u2019s fear he could miss the entire season, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There is a clear video of yesterday\u2019s incident. Barkov had a low-speed collision with teammate Niko Mikkola<\/a>, bending as if he were attempting a hip check, which caused Mikkola\u2019s weight to come down on top of him. He landed awkwardly on his right leg under pressure and was unable to get up without assistance (via WPLG Local 10 News<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A gargantuan hole now exists on the Cats\u2019 first line, a position Barkov has held ever since entering the league as an 18-year-old in 2013. The back-to-back Selke Trophy winner is smack-dab in the middle of his prime at age 30 and is widely regarded as the best two-way center in the game, and for good reason. He\u2019s now rattled off five straight seasons above a point per game, averaging a 33-62\u201395 scoring line per 82 games since the 2020-21 campaign. He\u2019s also logged a cumulative +92 rating during that time and has won 56.1% of his draws. He reached new heights on the possession front last year, logging a career-high 60.8% Corsi share at even strength.<\/p>\n

While the Panthers\u2019 forward depth has been the hallmark of their back-to-back Stanley Cup wins, it\u2019s already getting stretched thin. They\u2019re now down two stars for at least the first few months of the season as\u00a0Matthew Tkachuk<\/a>\u00a0recovers from offseason adductor surgery<\/a>. Not having Barkov available down the middle also amplifies the impact of relatively minor injuries like\u00a0Tomas Nosek<\/a>\u2019s. The natural pivot would have been in line to swallow up expanded bottom-six minutes normally, but he also underwent knee surgery recently and will miss multiple months<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This season\u2019s new rules surrounding long-term injured reserve<\/a> will now have a significant impact on the Panthers\u2019 approach. If a player is not expected to miss the entire season, a team only unlocks the equivalent of last year\u2019s league average salary \u2013 roughly $3.8MM in this case \u2013 in relief. That does not change based on the number of players on LTIR. If the Panthers were to make Barkov ineligible to play in the regular season or playoffs, though, they could unlock Barkov\u2019s full $10MM cap hit worth of relief, assuming they optimize their capture correctly.<\/p>\n

Florida already entered the season in a precarious position, projecting to exceed the cap by $4.5MM, per PuckPedia<\/a>. While Barkov\u2019s injury is a significant blow to their lineup, there\u2019s now an easy out for them to achieve cap compliance by the time opening night rosters are due by ruling him ineligible to return this season, even giving them room to add a significant salary via trade to help shoulder his absence.<\/p>\n

Until then, all eyes are on\u00a0Sam Bennett<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Anton Lundell<\/a>\u00a0to anchor Florida\u2019s top two lines. Bennett has been a stellar second-line pivot for the Cats since his arrival in 2021, and although he\u2019s fresh off signing an eight-year, $64MM extension<\/a>, he\u2019s never been tested in a top-line role. There\u2019s an argument to be made that Lundell, the 12th overall pick of the 2020 draft, should see the greater increase in minutes. He\u2019s filled in on the top line during short-term absences for Barkov in the past and has been a more effective per-minute producer than Bennett. The soon-to-be 24-year-old is also locked up long-term and had a career-high 45 points in 79 appearances last year, averaging 16:43 per game and winning 53% of his draws.<\/p>\n

The Panthers have a few options to fill the domino effect and replace Lundell as the No. 3 center.\u00a0Evan Rodrigues<\/a>, frequently a top-six complementary winger, is a natural pivot and has taken over 2,500 draws in his 10-year career. He might be a better fit in the role compared to other potential flex-overs like\u00a0Eetu Luostarinen<\/a>, who the Cats would presumably like to keep with Lundell and sustain the chemistry they\u2019ve built in consistent deployment together over the past few years.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also now a clear opening for PTO invites, Noah Gregor<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Tyler Motte<\/a>\u00a0to land NHL deals. Both now clearly slot in among the Panthers\u2019 top 14 forwards with Barkov, Nosek, and Tkachuk all sidelined.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Perry Nelson-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"6:04 PM: The team released an update on Barkov, noting that he sustained injuries to his ACL and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[88241,49,48,747,5718,4247,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-171949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-aleksander-barkov","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-florida-panthers","12":"tag-injury","13":"tag-newsstand","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}