Off The Crossbar

Every team wishes for a healthy and fruitful season; for some, that goal is accomplished with the highest honor the sport has to offer. For others, a lost season derailed by injury and poor play. A handful of teams are down stars not even ten games into the 2025-26 campaign and it’s showing in their record thus far this season. 

Florida Panthers: Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk

The reigning champions started the season off on the wrong foot when they announced that left-winger Matthew Tkachuk would be out until at least December, altering their second line and forcing them to make changes to a system that won them two consecutive Stanley Cups. The good news: Tkachuk is expected back at some point before the calendar turns to 2026, giving him plenty of time to play a significant role down the stretch as the Cats set their sights on a third consecutive championship. If the loss of Tkachuk wasn’t enough, the defending champions suffered another blow on September 25th, when they announced that captain Aleksander Barkov suffered an injury in practice and would miss the entire 2025-26 season. Barkov had surgery to repair his ACL and MCL shortly after the announcement, but Florida will be without its captain and franchise points leader for at least the entire regular season, if not longer. Barkov is also set to miss the 2026 Winter Olympics, where many expected him to captain Team Finland. 

Ottawa Senators: Brady Tkachuk 

The Tkachuk family’s 2025-26 season is off to a rough start, as younger brother Brady joined Matthew on the growing list of players already dealing with injuries this season. The Ottawa Senators’ captain underwent surgery on October 16th to repair a torn ligament in his thumb, an injury that occurred in the team’s home opener after a cross check from Roman Josi. Tkachuk should be back in the lineup by Thanksgiving per Senators’ media, so his team won’t have to be without him for long. The downside is the younger Tkachuk was looking to climb up franchise ranks in the coming games, most notably passing Wade Redden (410) for the fifth-most points in franchise history; he could also become the third player in franchise history to score 20 goals in a season seven or more times, but that might be another milestone in jeopardy depending on how much time he misses. 

Minnesota Wild: Mats Zuccarello 

Zuccarello is another player on the injured reserve that is yet to play in a game this season, as he was diagnosed with a lower-body injury towards the end of September and given a return timeline of seven to eight weeks. Not much has been said about the nature of the injury, but the Wild will want his production back in the lineup as soon as possible considering that they’re not off to a great start, sitting at 3-4-1 through eight games played to open the new campaign. Zuccarello, like Brady Tkachuk, could also find himself moving further up the ladder of franchise records, most notably in goals scored. The Norway native is currently sitting at 103 goals for the franchise, the 13th most in the history of the Wild, but he could find himself as high as seventh place by the time the season comes to a close because of a handful of players sitting in such tight succession the higher the list goes. 

Toronto Maple Leafs: Chris Tanev, Scott Laughton 

The Maple Leafs are already struggling with injuries to players poised to make a big impact coming into this season, which is never a good sign for a team in a market like that. The most recent and worst injuries are that of Chris Tanev and Scott Laughton, respectively; Tanev was placed on injury reserve on October 23, while Laughton has yet to skate in a regular season game for Toronto in 2025-26. Tanev exited the Leafs’ game against the New Jersey Devils after an awkward collision, and seeing him not return to action after making a name as a durable player is cause for concern. His roster spot has since been taken after the call-up of Dakota Mermis, so word is still out on a potential return for the defenseman. However, Leafs fans got some good news recently: Laughton has been cleared to begin skating, a huge milestone for the 31-year-old. He took to the ice Thursday, a huge improvement considering fans have seen him sporting a walking boot on numerous occasions over the past few weeks. While his exact return date is unknown, the team has hinted on numerous occasions that they’re targeting early November.