{"id":522627,"date":"2026-03-25T20:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T20:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/522627\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T20:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T20:59:10","slug":"tampa-bay-lightnings-victor-hedman-taking-temporary-leave-of-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/522627\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning\u2019s Victor Hedman taking temporary leave of absence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/tampa-bay-lightning\/14\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/tampa-bay-lightning\/14\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> captain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/victor-hedman\/8475167\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/victor-hedman\/8475167\" target=\"_blank\">Victor Hedman<\/a> will be taking a temporary leave of absence for personal reasons, the team announced on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Lightning added that they will not add further details and requests his privacy be respected.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Tampa Bay Lightning announced today that defenseman Victor Hedman will be taking a temporary leave of absence from the team for personal reasons. <\/p>\n<p>No further details will be shared, and the team asks that his privacy be respected at this time.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TBLightning\/status\/2036884813613809904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Hedman, 35, last appeared during March 19\u2019s 6-2 win over the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/vancouver-canucks\/23\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/vancouver-canucks\/23\" target=\"_blank\">Vancouver Canucks<\/a> but exited after only 4:44 of ice time with a reported illness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The 6-foot-7 blueliner also missed last three games with ailment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Hedman has only appeared in 33 games this season after missing 12 games with an undisclosed injury in November and then another 22 games after undergoing elbow surgery in December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He also represented Sweden at Milano Cortina 2026, recording a goal and two points in five games in a seventh-place finish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Hedman has a goal and 17 points with a minus-1 ranking while averaging 18:52 of ice time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Ornskoldsvik, Sweden native was drafted second overall by the Lightning in 2009 and has 172 goals and 811 points in 1,164 career games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He helped lead the Lightning to back-to-back Stanley Cup victories in 2020 and 2021, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2020.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Hedman also won the Norris Trophy as the league\u2019s top defenceman in 2018, after recording 17 goals and 63 points in 77 games with a plus-32 rating and averaging 25:51 of ice time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Lightning sit second in the Atlantic Division with a 44-21-5 record and are two points behind the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/buffalo-sabres\/7\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/buffalo-sabres\/7\" target=\"_blank\">Buffalo Sabres<\/a> for top spot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Tampa Bay has 12 games remaining in their regular season with 10 games against teams currently in the playoff picture, including a key matchup against the Sabres on April 6.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning captain Victor Hedman will be taking a temporary leave of absence for personal reasons, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4759,5,4,33549,46957],"class_list":{"0":"post-522627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-14","12":"tag-victor-hedman-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8475167"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116291827558291514","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}