Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov will not play Wednesday vs. Red Wings, out with lower-body injury

Florida Panthers’ head coach Paul Maurice told media on Wednesday morning that forward and captain Aleksander Barkov is dealing with a lower-body injury and will not play against the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night.

The 28-year-old Barkov was out for the final minutes of the Panthers’ 5-4 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Monday afternoon. He was not apart of Florida’s morning skate.

The team also announced that defenseman Dmitry Kulikov would return to the lineup after missing Monday’s game against the Ducks.

“He’s got a lower-body injury that we want to completely heal,” Maurice said. “If he’s at 95 percent for the Minnesota game (on Friday), he won’t go for that one either. We’ve got to get this back to 100 percent because of the way he plays, but we don’t think it should take long to do that.”

Barkov is second on the team in scoring with 46 points (11 goals and 35 assists) through 40 games. At this current rate, Barkov will score the most points he’s scored in a season since 2018-19 when he recorded 96 points.

This is also Barkov’s best season in terms of possession, posting a career-high 59.8 percent even strength corsi.

Through 11 NHL seasons, Barkov has scored 254 goals and 423 assists for 677 points through 704 career games.

The Panthers are 27-13-3 with 57 points, second in the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division. They’ve lost two straight after winning eight consecutive games

Following their Wednesday night matchup against the Red Wings, they host the Minnesota Wild on Friday, then head to Tennessee to face the Nashville Predators on Monday before hosting the Arizona Coyotes next Wednesday.