Aleksander Barkov left Thursday’s game in San Jose in the second period after his left knee appeared to buckle in a scrum along the boards with Darnell Nurse and Zack Ostapchuk. He threw his glove to the ice on his way down the tunnel and didn’t return, with the Florida Panthers losing 4-3 in overtime.
Paul Maurice spoke afterwards without naming the injury, but he did address the question everyone in Florida was asking.
“It’s not related to his injury last year at all,” Maurice said. “We’ll have a good idea by tomorrow afternoon.”
What happened to Aleksander Barkov?
Last year is the reason this one landed as hard as it did. Barkov tore the ACL and MCL in his right knee on the first day of training camp in September 2025 and had surgery the following day, wiping out his entire season. He didn’t play an NHL game between lifting the Stanley Cup on June 17, 2025 and Tuesday night.
That detail matters here. The injury last season was to the right knee, this one to the left, which lines up with Maurice’s assurance that the two aren’t connected.
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Barkov’s return had gone about as well as Florida could have hoped. He came back for the IIHF World Championship in the spring and led Finland to gold with 11 points in 10 games, then played 20:32 in the season opener against Carolina, taking shifts on the first line, the first power play and the first penalty kill.
“He looks powerful and strong,” Maurice said after that game, per NHL.com.
Barkov sounded equally comfortable.
“I haven’t had any problems about, like, overthinking or anything like that,” he said. “Just trying to play my game, trying to do my things.”
The Panthers are expected to have clarity on Friday. Barkov, a Selke Trophy winner and the player Maurice has repeatedly described as the heart of the team, has 782 points in 804 regular-season games and was evaluated by the club’s medical staff immediately after leaving the ice.
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