Veteran forward Brad Marchand will have long-standing injury evaluated, sidelining him for weeks as the Panthers enter the season's home stretch.
Another key player for the Florida Panthers may be heading for the long-term injured list.
On Monday, Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice revealed that forward Brad Marchand was scheduled to meet with doctors this week.
This is regarding an injury that Marchand has been playing through for much of the season.
It’s nothing new that just popped up recently. In fact, it’s an issue Marchand has some familiarity with.
“It’s something that he’s dealt with. He’s had it over the course of his career, so he understood it very well,” Maurice said. “We’ve been able to maintain it, but it’s just a function of nine (games) in 15 (days), go to Italy (for the Winter Olympics), come back, six (games) in nine days. The thing that we’ve been able to avoid for the most part this year — I don’t know if this is fortunately, but we’ve had mostly catastrophic injuries that were long-term and we stayed out of the soft tissue issues that you see more from overuse than anything else – and then in the last two (weeks), especially for the Olympians, we’re seeing that creep in. We’re maintaining guys as best we possibly can.”
Whether Marchand’s issue is something that can be rehabbed, or if surgery will be required, is something that will be evaluated this week.
Either way, it sounds like the veteran forward may have played his last game this season.
“There’s going to be a decision made on what’s the best way to get him to 100% full health,” Maurice said. “I think even if there isn’t (a final decision this week), then we’re still talking long-term. This isn’t going to be a couple of days; we’re into weeks.”
Florida has 19 games remaining on their schedule, taking place over the next five weeks.
Perhaps if the Panthers weren’t currently 11 points out of a playoff spot after enduring a stretch of nine losses in 11 games, they could approach the season’s home stretch from a different standpoint.
Considering how the season has played out to this point, Marchand battling through an injury for much of the schedule feels somewhat appropriate.
It’s actually very impressive that Marchand was able to have such a strong campaign, leading the Panthers in scoring for the majority of when he was healthy.
“Fingers crossed, we were really pleased and quite surprised that we hadn’t run into this earlier,” Maurice said. “We had had a handle on it, and there were times where he didn’t play, but kind of maintained it, and came back in (the lineup). Then it just got to the point on this road trip that it was never recovering and continuing to kind of get worse. We’re hopeful that we got it early enough, that it isn’t…well, we’ll know this week what it is.”
As it stands, Marchand has 27 goals and 54 points through 52 games with the Panthers this season.
He signed a six-year extension with Florida last July that will keep him with the Panthers through the summer of 2031.
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Photo caption: Mar 3, 2026; Newark, New Jersey, USA; Florida Panthers left wing Brad Marchand (63) reacts to a penalty call against the New Jersey Devils during the second period at Prudential Center. (Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images)