Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov (16) skates on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, at the Baptist Health IcePlex in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Jordan McPherson
jmcpherson@miamiherald.com
The Florida Panthers held out hope they would get captain Aleksander Barkov back on the ice this season after a training camp injury forced him to get surgery on the ACL and MCL in his right knee.
That hope, primarily, was that he would return for a potential Stanley Cup playoff run, a chase for a third consecutive championship.
Those playoff hopes are gone, with the Panthers all but mathematically eliminated from postseason contention as injuries ravaged their roster and kept them on the outside looking in of the playoff picture all season.
And while Barkov has been skating with the team for a good bit now, Panthers coach Paul Maurice shut down the notion that Barkov could potentially see the ice in any of Florida’s final nine games before the regular season ends.
“No. I don’t think so,” Maurice told reporters Sunday prior to the Panthers’ 3-1 road loss to the New York Rangers. “Not in the situation. So they give you a two-month window [to return] on these knee injuries. He’ll get inside that two-month window, but why would we? We’ll take the whole two months before he plays a hockey game again becauase we just wouldn’t want to … if it’s six-to-eight [weeks] and we put him in at seven and something happens, that doesn’t make much sense, so we’ll have him go through the entire rehab process.”
Barkov sustained the noncontact injury within the first half hour of his first training camp practice on Sept. 25. He had surgery the next day. The projected timeline of recovery at that time was seven to nine months. That pointed to a late-April return on the early end of the timeline. The Panthers’ regular-season schedule ends April 15.
However, Barkov began doing individual on-ice drills in January and joined the team for practice sessions in a non-contact jersey in mid-March. Florida’s captain, who holds the franchise’s career records for games played (804), goals (286), assists (496) and points (782) among other categories, remained optimistic about his recovery.
“I’m really happy where I am right now,” Barkov said in late February. “I know the schedule. I know that I’m in good hands. We have great people working for the Panthers — surgeons and physical therapists and doctors. I trust them, and they will always make the right decision. And I know hopefully, very soon, I’ll be back with the team.”
Right now, it looks like that will be next season, with Florida potentially being eliminated from playoff contention as early as Tuesday.
The Panthers enter Monday with a 35-35-3 record for a total of 73 points in the standings with nine games left to play starting with their Tuesday home game against the Ottawa Senators (7 p.m., Scripps Sports). If Florida somehow ran the table to close the season, it would max out at 91 points. The Boston Bruins, currently in the Eastern Conference’s top wild card spot, already have 92 points, so Florida’s only path to the postseason would be as the second wild card.
The Columbus Blue Jackets currently occupy the Eastern Conference’s final wild card spot with 88 points. The Senators, Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers are in a three-way tie just outside playoff positioning with 86 points. If any of those teams eclipse 91 points, then Florida will be officially eliminated from playoff contention. The point threshold drops with each point the Panthers fail to pick up.
Which leads to Tuesday.
A Panthers regulation loss to the Senators and a Columbus win in any fashion against the Carolina Hurricanes would formally eliminate the Panthers from the playoffs. The regulation loss would cap the Panthers’ point potential at 89 points. The Columbus win would give the Blue Jackets 90 points.
This story was originally published March 29, 2026 at 2:17 PM.
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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.