Aleksander Barkov is having surgery on his right knee, Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice announced Friday.
Maurice said the Panthers hope to have more information later in the day.
“’Barky’ is in surgery right now,” Maurice said Friday morning. “When he comes out, we’ll get final information on how the surgery went and we will get you all the information and it will be pretty detailed. We’ll be real transparent with it. That should happen hopefully later today.’’
The Panthers captain was helped off the ice Thursday, favoring his right leg.
Thursday was the first time Panthers veterans practiced on the ice. Maurice had them working out away from it for the first week of training camp.
“That’s why you can’t bubblewrap a player, keep them out of games or save them. It can happen anywhere, can happen at practice,” Maurice said. “You don’t want this to happen, but it might as well happen early so we can deal with it and learn a lot more about the other players we have.
“His numbers were off the chart, he felt great. It was 20 minutes into the first practice and we had not gotten into anything heavy yet. He was not breathing heavy. It’s a fluke play.’’
It’s the latest injury for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, who open their season at home against the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 7 (5 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN1, TVAS).
The Panthers are already going to start the season without top forward Matthew Tkachuk (lower body) and fourth-line center Tomas Nosek because of what general manager Bill Zito called a “long-term injury.”
“There’s no hiding it, that’s a hole. That’s the big man,” Maurie said. “He is such an important piece in that locker room. What we’ll get to know now is some of the other leaders in the room. We’ll get to see other players and, at the end of the day, I know there’s the idea of ‘next man up,’ and I get all that. But there’s no next-man for Barky’s skates. We just have to share it, spread it across the room and among the coaches. We have to share that.”
Barkov is a three-time winner of the Selke Trophy (2020-21, 2023-24, 2024-25) voted as the League’s top defensive forward. He was selected by the Panthers with the No. 2 pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, had 71 points (20 goals, 51 assists) in 67 games last season and has 782 points (286 goals, 496 assists) in 804 regular-season games.
Over the past two postseasons, Barkov has 44 points (14 goals, 30 assists) in 47 games, one point behind Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe for the most among Panthers skaters.
“You get one day to be sad. I had my day yesterday,’’ Maurice said.
NHL.com independent correspondent George Richards contributed to this report
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