On Thursday, one of the National Hockey League's best players left practice with what looked like a bad injury. Florida Panthers captain Sasha Barkov appeared to injure something on his lower body. He needed help to leave the ice.
On Friday, the worst-case scenario was reported. Barkov is expected to miss the entire 2025-26 regular season due to knee surgery.
Panthers captain Sasha Barkov suffers significant knee injury, expected to miss regular season
The Florida Panthers are going to be without their captain for an extended period of time.
The Florida Panthers are the first team that the Chicago Blackhawks will face during the regular season. Opening night in Sunrise will see the home team without their captain.
Barkov is also not the only prominent Panther who will be missing. They will also be without Matthew Tkachuk, who is right there with Barkov in terms of importance to the forward group. Missing both of them will make it difficult to navigate.
Tkachuk won't out be as long as Barkov, as he is expected back around the holidays, but nothing is certain. He was injured during last year's 4-Nations Face-Off.
What are the Panthers going to be missing with these two out when they face the Blackhawks? For Barkov, he is the best two-way center active in the game right now. He brings an elite level of offense while playing shutdown defense. Few players in NHL history have been as good as him in all three zones.
As for Tkachuk, he is a feisty winger who is hard to play against for a few reasons. For one, he is a 100-point player when he's healthy. He is also someone whose goal is to make the opposition angry while playing. The term "super-pest" is used to describe his play style. When you combine his elite skill with the way he plays the game, you get someone who is as unique and special as they come.
This game did not become a free win for the Chicago Blackhawks. The Panthers aren't back-to-back Stanley Cup champions because of two players. They still have an elite defense, tons of other wonderful forwards who can carry the load offensively, and a Hall of Fame goaltender in Sergei Bobrovsky.
Although missing Barkov and Tkachuk will be hard for Florida all year, Chicago must still bring a perfect effort on Opening Night.
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