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Thursday brought another shift to the lineup, as Hedman was placed on long-term injured reserve following a March 25 announcement that he would be taking a temporary leave of absence for personal reasons. LTIR rules require a player to miss at least 10 games and 24 days, dating back to his last appearance on March 19 in Vancouver, when he logged just 4:44 of ice time before exiting early.<\/p>\n
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\u00a9 Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Based on the current timeline, Hedman would be eligible to return on April 13 against the Detroit Red Wings, with the Lightning closing out the regular season on April 15 against the New York Rangers. He is not currently practicing with the team, and any potential postseason return would understandably require time to regain game pace.<\/p>\n
Hedman has navigated a difficult stretch of injuries this season, one that has been challenging for him to process. He first missed 12 games with an elbow injury before returning briefly, only for the issue to require surgery that sidelined him from Nov. 12 to Jan. 29. He made his return during the NHL Stadium Series game on Feb. 1 and played in the Lightning’s three games that week.<\/p>\n
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He later represented Sweden in the Olympics but was unable to play in the quarterfinal after sustaining a lower-body injury during warmups. After returning, Hedman acknowledged the setback was difficult to deal with, particularly as he had just begun to feel like himself again. He appeared in 12 games following the break, averaging 17:30 of ice time\u2014a steady presence fans have come to expect, even as his season took an unexpected turn.<\/p>\n
While Hedman worked through the setbacks, the Lightning\u2019s defensive group continued to evolve. Darren Raddysh<\/a> and J. J. Moser<\/a> have developed into one of the league\u2019s most effective pairings. Raddysh, in particular, has put together a historic stretch, recording 21 goals\u2014the most ever by a Lightning defenseman in a single season. Hedman would have been the first to congratulate him on hitting that milestone.<\/p>\n \u00a9 Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n Charle-Edouard D\u2019Astous<\/a>, signed in May 2025 after spending time in the Swedish Hockey League, has also made an impact, most recently alongside Emil Lilleberg<\/a>\u00a0who made his NHL Debut in 2024. The 25-year old has battled through his own challenges, missing 23 games following a leg surgery and recently returning from a facial fracture that left his jaw wired shut for two weeks. Lilleberg’s physical presence has added another dimension to the blue line.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Anchoring the group are veterans Ryan McDonagh<\/a> and Erik Cernak<\/a>, whose resume includes two Stanley Cups and extensive playoff experience. Since McDonagh\u2019s return from Nashville, the two picked up where they left off, reinforcing both stability and depth on the back end.<\/p>\n With six games remaining in the season, Hedman\u2019s timeline still remains uncertain, but the Lightning have demonstrated they can lean on their current group as they prepare for another postseason run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s hard to imagine a Tampa Bay Lightning postseason without Victor Hedman, the future Hall of Fame defenseman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5105],"tags":[2580,93,6713,2312,5,189,2409,35,4,4085,540,92,5168,5167,893,1498],"class_list":{"0":"post-543889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-lightning","8":"tag-darren-raddysh","9":"tag-detroit-red-wings","10":"tag-emil-lilleberg","11":"tag-erik-cernak","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-lightning","14":"tag-nashville","15":"tag-new-york-rangers","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-ryan-mcdonagh","18":"tag-tampa-bay","19":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","20":"tag-tampabay","21":"tag-tampabaylightning","22":"tag-vancouver","23":"tag-victor-hedman"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116358408465158837","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543889","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=543889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\u00a9](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ccc4543870f6bb63e7642f241f887c79.jpeg\"\/)
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