The Florida Panthers will be without top defenceman Aaron Ekblad until at least mid-November, and quite possibly longer, after the team putting him on the long-term injured reserve list with a groin injury.
Players on the LTIR list must miss at least 10 games and 24 days; the Panthers have 11 games in that 24-day window, so Ekblad is out for at least that many.
He got hurt in Florida's loss Monday at Boston. "We're not happy about it and obviously we're concerned for him as a person first," Panthers general manager Bill Zito said Wednesday. "But he'll be back.
It's not a season-ending thing. There's no reason to believe he won't be back at anything other than 100 per cent." And even without their best defenceman, the Panthers have found ways to win consistently over the last two seasons when he's not in the lineup.