Florida Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola (77) and Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Emil Lilleberg (78) compete for the puck in the first period of their NHL game at the Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla.
Photo by Matias J. Ocner
mocner@miamiherald.com
Paul Maurice’s tone when giving his postgame update on Friday perhaps said as much as the actual words.
The Florida Panthers’ veteran head coach usually hems and haws his way around immediate injury updates after a game. He gives the run-of-the-mill line that the player needs to undergo further testing and will hopefully provide better clarity the next time he’s made available to speak.
But Maurice didn’t need any extra time to in the aftermath of Florida’s 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames — the Panthers’ third loss on their four-game road trip last week — to know where things stood after defenseman Niko Mikkola left that game with an apparent left knee injury in the third period.
“We’re going to miss him,” Maurice said postgame. “He’s going to miss some time, I believe.”
Maurice’s fear proved to be correct. The coach on Monday said Mikkola won’t need surgery but will be out four-to-six weeks.
Considering Florida has just three-and-a-half weeks left on its schedule, the injury effectively ends Mikkola’s season.
And it’s not just Mikkola. Fellow defenseman Uvis Balinskis has a foot fracture from blocking a shot on Feb. 27 and will also likely be out the rest of the regular season.
And with that, the personnel losses keep coming for the Panthers as a lost season slowly but surely gets closer to its conclusion.
Oh, and the Panthers are still without forwards Sam Reinhart (undisclosed) and Brad Marchand (potential surgery for lower-body injury); captain Aleksander Barkov (right knee surgery in training camp) hasn’t played all season; forward Mackie Samoskevich (laceration) is out for a week to 10 days; forward Jonah Gadjovich (upper-body) remains out after undergoing surgery in November; and forward Anton Lundell (undisclosed) is day-to-day. Star winger Matthew Tkachuk, fourth-line center Tomas Nosek, and defensemen Seth Jones and Dmitry Kulikov all also missed extended time this year.
“That’s clearly the story of our season,” Maurice said.
It’s a story that has put a damper on the team’s success the past three years — reaching the Stanley Cup Final each season, winning it all the past two.
But no team, no matter how talented, no matter how deep, can survive the injury challenges this Panthers team has gone through.
They’ve certainly tried. They fought all season. They’re still fighting, even though they enter their game against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday 14 points out of a playoff spot with 13 games left to play — all but mathematically eliminated from postseason contention.
“We’re a really close group. We all care about each other a lot,” forward Sam Bennett said. “You never want to see that, but you’ve got to stick together. When guys go down, other guys have got to step up.”
That’s the approach they’ll take over these final few weeks. They’ll power through what’s left of their schedule, take a full offseason — something this team hasn’t had the past three years — to let wounds and aches and pains heal, and come back ready to prove the 2025-26 season was merely an aberration.
“Things haven’t been very easy for us this year,” Maurice said. “This has been a hard year, and it’s been a humbling year. You win two and then you just start taking hits the entire year. Nobody’s happy. It’s dark after a game. But they roll back into the rink, they come to work, and they treat each other the exact same way that they did when things were good. And part of that maybe, as we all know, is that things can get back there if we work hard enough and we do all the right things. There’s a future. We’re not at the tail end. We’re in the middle of our story.”
This and thatThe Panthers recalled forward Noah Gregor from AHL Charlotte ahead of Tuesday’s game against Seattle.Two Panthers hit milestones on Tuesday: Maurice is coaching in his 2,000th game, and defenseman Aaron Ekblad is playing in his 800th NHL game.
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Miami Herald
Jordan McPherson covers the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Panthers for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and covered the Gators athletic program for five years before joining the Herald staff in December 2017.