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March 27, 2026
Florida panthers injuries

SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers have had more than their share of injuries this season, everyone knows that. Paul Maurice has a great sense of humor about things, but when it comes to his guys getting hurt, this just isn’t funny anymore.

A few weeks back, Maurice was asked when he thought injuries to his players were getting a bit of out hand. He referenced Eetu Luostarinen sustaining major-league burns to his legs and feet after his gas grill blew up while the forward was cooking up some steaks. Luostarinen missed eight games.

“When you start blowing up barbecues,’’ Maurice said last month with a hint of resignation, “you start to think, what’s happening?’’


Maurice was grinning, but he wasn’t quite laughing. Gallows humor and whatnot. Injuries to the Panthers are becoming a joke. Not a ‘ha-ha’ joke, but a ‘what in the world is going on here?’ joke.

The Panthers knew Matthew Tkachuk was going to miss 3-4 months after having surgery in August. They did not know Tomas Nosek would need knee surgery due to an offseason injury.

Then, Sasha Barkov was lost for the year in September.

More injuries were coming — and they came fast and furious.

On Thursday night, Evan Rodrigues broke a finger on his first shift of the game against the Minnesota Wild putting him out, at least, for the two games this weekend in New York against the Islanders and Rangers.

More than likely, Rodrigues is out for the final three weeks of this lost season.

Rodrigues appears to have joined the likes of Brad Marchand, Sam Reinhart, Anton Lundell, Niko Mikkola, Jonah Gadjovich, and others who have played their final game of the 2025-26 campaign for the Panthers.

Marchand has lingering issues and shutting him down makes plenty of sense considering how far out of the playoffs Florida is.

Reinhart’s foot injury sounds like a problematic deal as well.

But Lundell, Mikkola, Rodrigues and others are injuries coming from game action.

Say what you will about ‘this team needs the rest,’ after playing more games over the past three seasons than any team in NHL history.

That point is valid.

But the Panthers have been getting shellacked on the injury front and rest may not have prevented a lot of them.

Like Barkov’s right knee buckling, it had nothing to do with going to the Stanley Cup Finals and playing deep into June over the past three seasons.

Although it may not have helped.

Use the MASH unit cliche all you want — that was a movie turned into a popular TV show in the 1970s based on war-time mobile hospitals for all you youngsters — but the Panthers are a mess right now.

“The most dangerous job in sports right now is to play for the Florida Panthers,” Maurice quipped Thursday when talking about Rodrigues.

After Thursday’s game, one they lost 3-2 to the Wild with 4.4 seconds left, the Panthers have 425 games missed to injury.

There were nine players on the injured list. Rodrigues makes 10.

Follow the money?

Of the $88-million salary cap, Florida currently — not counting Tkachuk missing the first few months, or Seth Jones missing two months with a fractured collarbone, or even Luostarinen — has $40 million out of its lineup.

Hard to win with those kind of players on the shelf.

No wonder the Panthers are 14 points out of a playoff spot with 11 games left.

“Just another story of the year,” said Tkachuk, who returned to the lineup in January after missing the start of the season.

CURRENT FLORIDA PANTHERS INJURIES

  • Evan Rodrigues* (broken finger), Sam Reinhart* (foot), Niko Mikkola* (knee), Mackie Samoskevich (neck laceration), Anton Lundell* (upper body), Cole Schwindt (lower body), Uvis Balinskis* (fractured foot), Brad Marchand* (lower body), Sasha Barkov* (knee), Jonah Gadjovich* (upper body)
  • * — Potentially out for the remainder of the 2025-26 season
ON DECK: GAME No. 72
FLORIDA PANTHERS at NEW YORK ISLANDERS 
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