Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito said Wednesday he doesn’t know whether star forward Matthew Tkachuk will return for the Winter Classic on Jan. 2.
Tkachuk is yet to play this season after undergoing surgery in August. He resumed skating on his own last month, but has not joined a team session as of yet.
“The prognosis is the same that I said at the beginning of the season,” Zito said, per NHL.com. “They told me around Christmas, so I don’t know what that means. He’ll play when he’s ready.”
Tkachuk was first injured while playing for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. The 27-year-old winger revealed after the season that he suffered a torn adductor muscle and sports hernia during the tournament. He missed the final 25 games of the season after the tournament but returned for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Tkachuk scored eight goals and totalled 23 points in 23 games to help lead the Panthers to their second consecutive Stanley Cup title over the Edmonton Oilers.
Florida has spent this season playing shorthanded with captain Aleksander Barkov likely to miss the entire year with a torn ACL and Tkachuk yet to play. The Panthers have heated up as of late, going 6-3-1 in their past 10 games to move within one point of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The back-to-back Stanley Cup champions will host the New York Rangers in the Winter Classic to start their 2026 schedule.