Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov is undergoing knee surgery after being injured on the first full day of training camp practice Thursday.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice told reporters Friday that the star center was sent for surgery after undergoing testing.
On Thursday, Barkov wasn’t able to skate off the ice under his own power and had to be helped to the team’s locker room.
“Not a guy you want to see go down, for sure,” Panthers forward Jesper Boqvist said.
Barkov led the Panthers in assists last season with 51 and was second in points with 71 before adding six goals and 16 assists in the playoffs when Florida won its second consecutive Stanley Cup.
He is Florida’s franchise leader in countless categories, including games played (804), goals (286), assists (496), points (782), power-play goals (84) and game-winning goals (52).
The Panthers already expect to be without forward Matthew Tkachuk for the first several weeks of the season while he recovers from offseason surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle and a sports hernia and now are likely to see Barkov miss significant time as well.
“Beyond our control, so there’s no concern,” Maurice said Thursday. “If we have to learn to win hockey games without good players, if that’s the adversity or the test that we face this year, that’s what we’re going to do.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
