Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov leaves practice early with apparent leg injury

Florida Panthers captain and veteran center Aleksander Barkov left the team’s practice early on Thursday with an apparent injury to his right leg, requiring help to get off the ice.

“It will get looked at today,” head coach Paul Maurice told reporters, including NHL.com’s George Richards. “I will have a better answer for you tomorrow.”

Barkov, who turned 30 years old earlier this month, is coming off of a 71-point effort a year ago in 67 regular season games played. He followed that up by leading the Panthers to their second consecutive Stanley Cup championship with 22 points in 23 postseason contests while shutting down the top scoring lines of Florida’s opponents along the way.

The injuries are starting to pile up for the two-time reigning champs, as Matthew Tkachuk will miss a significant portion of the beginning of the year as he recovers from a torn adductor injury and sports hernia that he suffered during the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

Depth forward Thomas Nosek is also set to miss considerable time with a knee injury he sustained while training during the off-season.

“It’s beyond our control,” Maurice added. “We have to learn to win hockey games without good players. If that’s the adversity or the test that we face this year, then that’s what we’re going to do.”

If Barkov is forced to miss a considerable stretch of games, the Panthers have the center depth to survive until his return. Anton Lundell has thrived as a third-line center playing a similar style to Barkov, and Sam Bennett can move up to the first line having broken out as a legitimate top-end player with Florida in recent years.

The Panthers’ next preseason game is set for Monday night against the Carolina Hurricanes, and they are slated to kick off the NHL regular season with a 5:00 PM EST puck drop on October 7 against the Chicago Blackhawks, when they will send another Stanley Cup banner to the rafters.