{"id":9937,"date":"2025-05-02T22:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T22:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/9937\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T22:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T22:03:09","slug":"bjorkstrand-hagel-hedman-other-injuries-howard-cooper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/9937\/","title":{"rendered":"Bjorkstrand, Hagel, Hedman, Other Injuries, Howard, Cooper"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lightning played their short-lived 2025 playoff schedule against the Panthers with an extremely banged-up roster (more on that later). One player who wasn\u2019t available at all during the series was trade deadline acquisition\u00a0Oliver Bjorkstrand<\/a>. Speaking today during his end-of-season media availability, general manager Julien BriseBois said Bjorkstrand developed compartment syndrome following a game against the Red Wings on April 11 and had emergency surgery early the following morning (via the team\u2019s Benjamin Pierce<\/a>).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s obviously a much more serious ailment than what the Bolts initially let on. He was declared<\/a> week-to-week with a lower-body injury ahead of their final three regular-season games, but no information was dispensed following that. Acute compartment syndrome occurs due to increased pressure in and around muscles following an injury and can be life-threatening if not treated quickly, according to the Cleveland Clinic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bjorkstrand is thankfully expected to be ready for training camp in the fall, BriseBois said. He finished the year with 5-4\u20139 in 18 games after Tampa acquired him from the Kraken, and he has one year left on his deal at a $5.4MM cap hit.<\/p>\n

More on the Lightning:<\/p>\n

Brandon Hagel<\/a>\u00a0confirmed he sustained a concussion on the hit from Panthers defenseman\u00a0Aaron Ekblad<\/a>\u00a0in Game 4 that ended his series, Jay Recher<\/a> relays. Ekblad was suspended<\/a> two games for the hit and will miss Game 1 of the second round against Toronto as a result. Hagel, who was limited to a minus-four rating in three games of the series due to his injury and a previous suspension, added that Ekblad didn\u2019t approach him beforehand to discuss a retaliatory fight for Hagel\u2019s suspension<\/a>-causing hit on Florida captain Aleksander Barkov<\/a>, nor has Ekblad reached out to Hagel following his concussion. \u201cI would have answered the bell if someone would have said, \u2019Let\u2019s fight,’\u201d Hagel said. \u201cI don\u2019t care if I would have got my ass kicked. I have to respond to a situation. I understood it was the case\u201d (via Loux<\/a>).
\nCaptain\u00a0Victor Hedman<\/a>\u00a0played the last two games of the series on a broken foot, BriseBois said (via Diandra Loux of The Hockey News<\/a>). He\u2019ll be ready for camp in the fall after recording three assists and a minus-six rating in the series.
\nOther Bolts playing through injuries were\u00a0Anthony Cirelli<\/a> (Grade 2 MCL sprain),\u00a0Luke Glendening<\/a> (right shoulder AC joint separation),\u00a0Nikita Kucherov<\/a> (left hand extensor),\u00a0Nick Paul<\/a> (left wrist tear), and\u00a0Yanni Gourde<\/a> (broken finger), Brisebois told reporters. Like Bjorkstrand and Hedman, they\u2019re all expected to be ready for training camp in the fall, although Glendening and Gourde are pending unrestricted free agents and may not be back with the team.
\nBriseBois confirmed a report last month from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet that they\u2019re unlikely to sign 2022 first-round pick\u00a0Isaac Howard<\/a>\u00a0to an entry-level contract (via Recher<\/a>). They\u2019ll focus on trading his signing rights over the next year while he returns<\/a> to Michigan State for his senior season. If they can\u2019t sign or trade the Hobey Baker winner\u2019s rights by Aug. 15, 2026, and he becomes an unrestricted free agent, the Lightning will receive a compensatory 2027 second-round pick (No. 65 overall) for failing to sign a first-round draft choice.
\nHead coach Jon Cooper will serve out the final season of his contract in Tampa despite recent speculation otherwise, BriseBois said (via Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times<\/a>). \u201cWhen this contract ends, my expectation is he\u2019s going sign another one and he\u2019s going to be here\u2026So Coop will be back next year, and I expect beyond,\u201d BriseBois said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lightning played their short-lived 2025 playoff schedule against the Panthers with an extremely banged-up roster (more on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[397,97,5,4043,2086,1333,1334,1335,1288,92,1498,400],"class_list":{"0":"post-9937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-anthony-cirelli","9":"tag-brandon-hagel","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-isaac-howard","12":"tag-jon-cooper","13":"tag-luke-glendening","14":"tag-nick-paul","15":"tag-nikita-kucherov","16":"tag-oliver-bjorkstrand","17":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","18":"tag-victor-hedman","19":"tag-yanni-gourde"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114440503959309351","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9937","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=9937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}