Florida Panthers Jonathan Huberdeau Out "long-term"
Florida Panthers winger Jonathan Huberdeau will be out long-term with a lower-body injury, general manager Tom Rowe announced Sunday.
In Friday’s 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils, Huberdeau was skating behind the net, when Sergey Kalinin came in for a hit. After the two got tangled up, Kalinin’s skate came down on the back of Huberdeau’s ankle.
Here’s the injury for those who didn’t see it:
looks like skate coming down on back of left ankle, as observed by the Florida broadcast pic.twitter.com/gG5b7NE2vr
— Stephanie (@myregularface) October 9, 2016
The 23-year-old forward appeared to limp away following the injury, then fell close to the bench. Aaron Ekblad and a trainer helped him off the ice and into the locker room, and he never returned to the game.
Huberdeau will be further evaluated when the team flies back to Florida Sunday evening and will undergo an MRI to see the severity of the injury. Right now, all the team knows is that he will be out for a while.
According to the head coach Gerald Gallant, Huberdeau is stitched up and in a walking boot.
“It doesn’t look good right now, but until we get the MRI, we don’t know a whole lot,” Gallant told the Miami Herald. “He got cut pretty bad with the skate. We’ll see what happens. We’re obviously hoping for the best. Will it be two weeks? Two months? We don’t have a timeframe. The MRI will tell us a lot.
“You have to move on. He’s a real good player. But we’ll make no excuses. Injuries are part of every team.”
Florida will now have to go without two top-six forwards entering the 2016-17 campaign. Earlier this week, centre Nick Bjustad suffered a broken hand and will be out for a month. As the team rushes to find replacements for their star players, they may have to look to younger prospects waiting in the wings.
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