{"id":315441,"date":"2025-11-26T20:40:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T20:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/315441\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T20:40:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T20:40:08","slug":"tkachuk-skating-still-a-ways-away-from-returning-to-panthers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/315441\/","title":{"rendered":"Tkachuk skating, still \u2018a ways away\u2019 from returning to Panthers"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Matthew Tkachuk<\/a> has started skating on his own, but the Florida Panthers forward is \u201ca ways away\u201d from returning to action, coach Paul Maurice said.<\/p>\n

Tkachuk has not played this season, having undergone surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle and a sports hernia on Aug. 22.<\/p>\n

He was originally injured playing for the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February and missed the final 25 games of the 2024-25 regular season.<\/p>\n

He returned for the Stanley Cup Playoffs and helped the Panthers to a second consecutive championship, getting 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists) in 23 postseason games.<\/p>\n

Maurice said Wednesday that there is no true timeline for when Tkachuk will join his teammates on the ice.<\/p>\n

He said the Panthers are closely monitoring Tkachuk\u2019s health and having him skate on alternating days to start.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hit the ice twice last week before he went back to see the doctor,\u2019\u2019 Maurice said. \u201cHe is on an on-off schedule; he skates one, then trains one just to keep the soreness out. He will stay on that [schedule] until he hits certain markers where he has enough power and strength. Then, we\u2019ll put him on two-on, one off. He\u2019s still a ways away.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he\u2019s back on the ice, and he was not two weeks ago. So, we\u2019ll take it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Speaking on the \u201cWingmen\u201d podcast he hosts with his younger brother, Ottawa Senators forward Brady Tkachuk<\/a>, Matthew said this week that before going on the ice in Fort Lauderdale last week, he had not skated since Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on June 18.<\/p>\n

Tkachuk said he laced up the skates for the photo and video shoot in advance of being on the cover of EA Sports\u2019 NHL 26. He said he felt the pain that had been bothering him since the 4 Nations Face-Off, which further indicated he would need surgery.<\/p>\n

Matthew, Brady, and their father, Keith, are together on the cover of the deluxe edition of NHL 26.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was really the first time I legit put on my skates since Game 6,\u2019\u2019 Matthews said on the podcast. \u201cIt was a weird feeling. The docs and the trainers and the rehab schedule that I am on is really good, really easy to just continue to ramp up like any other injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt did feel so weird, but I felt better than I did in my first skate in the playoffs. I\u2019m just excited for \u2026 being able to ramp it up, and just excited to get out there with the boys. I don\u2019t know when that\u2019s going to be. It\u2019s getting over that hump sooner rather than later. It\u2019s starting to trend really well. I am happy with it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Tkachuk said that the recovery from his surgery is \u201cmonth to month,\u2019\u2019 which Maurice reiterated on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Maurice said he did not have an answer to when he thought Tkachuk would return to practice with the Panthers, much less play in his first game of the season.<\/p>\n

General manager Bill Zito said at the start of training camp that the Panthers had hoped to have Tkachuk skating with the team again in mid-December.<\/p>\n

Brady and Matthew were among the six players named to the United States\u2019 preliminary roster for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 this February.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was December, January, is what we were told,\u2019\u2019 Maurice said of the initial timeline for Tkachuk\u2019s rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an eight-week window, but that\u2019s where these injuries are. He just has to hit a bunch of milestones before he can be pushed. I just can\u2019t say when he will be back with us.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

In addition to Tkachuk, Florida is without captain Aleksander Barkov<\/a>, who had knee surgery after being injured early in training camp and is expected to be out 7-9 months. Forwards Tomas Nosek<\/a> (knee) and Jonah Gadjovich<\/a> (upper body), defenseman link-placeholder-3<\/a>, and Cole Schwindt<\/a> (broken arm) are also each out long term.<\/p>\n

The Panthers (12-9-1) host the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; SCRIPPS, NBCSP) and are sixth in the Atlantic Division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Matthew Tkachuk has started skating on his own, but the Florida Panthers forward is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-315441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}