The Florida Panthers could be without Sasha Barkov at least for the remainder of this four-game road trip after their captain appeared to sustain some sort of injury to his left leg on Thursday night.
Barkov, who missed all of last season after needing reconstructive surgery on his right knee, is scheduled to have an MRI sometime Friday in southern California where the team is camped out for the next few days.
If Barkov’s injury is not serious — he has left games after hits to either of his knees in the past and returned a few weeks later — the Panthers should be OK.
The lack of salary cap space, however, makes this a difficult situation to navigate.
Florida is right up against the NHL’s $104 million salary cap and are currently only carrying 21 players instead of the 23-man max.
The only spare player on the roster is defenseman Uvis Balinskis who was forced into action Thursday when Gus Forsling was a late scratch.
If Barkov is only going to be out short-term, the Panthers will need to do something.
Balinskis grew up playing as a forward before being switched to defense as a teenager. Paul Maurice has used Balinskis as a fourth-line forward in the past.
While that is not optimal, it is a Band-Aid for the time being.
If Barkov were to miss, say, a month to six weeks, the Panthers could place him on LTIR and recover about $4 million of his cap hit. That would allow Florida to at least bring up some reinforcements (a center would be likely) from AHL Charlotte.
To be eligible for LTIR without it being a season-ending designation — in that case, a player could not return at all, including the playoffs but the team gets all of their cap space back — a player would have to miss 10 games and 24 days.
Florida could also designate Brad Marchand for LTIR and create some cap space if his timeline remains around Nov. 1.
Wednesday, Maurice said Marchand looked to be ahead of schedule.
Before training camp, however, he said Marchand would miss the entire month of October regardless of how good he may look leading up to that.
As far as how the lineup could look, Florida needs a center.
Either Anton Lundell or Sam Bennett could slide up into Barkov’s spot between Sam Reinhart and Brady Tkachuk, although seasoned-veteran Lars Eller saw some time there Thursday after Barkov left with an injury.
Maurice could also change up the lines with Barkov out, putting the Tkachuk Brothers together with Bennett; Lundell has had success playing with Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe in the past.
Eller could move up to the third line, or remain on the fourth if Florida made a cap-saving move and brought up a player such as Cole Reinhardt or Cole Schwindt from Charlotte.
Either one of those players could slide into a center role on the third or fourth line.
ON DECK: GAME No. 3
FLORIDA PANTHERS at ANAHEIM DUCKS
George Richards is the publisher of Florida Hockey Now and has been the beat writer covering the NHL Florida … More about George Richards, FHN Publisher