The Florida Panthers got a pair of injury updates Thursday that aren’t exactly the kind you want to hear with training camp opening.
Head coach Paul Maurice said forward Brad Marchand will miss the entire month of October while he continues rehab, and forward Jonah Gadjovich is out indefinitely.
Marchand’s absence wasn’t a surprise in the broad sense. The Panthers already knew he wouldn’t be ready to open the 2026-27 season after he had surgery in August for an unspecified injury. General manager Bill Zito said at the time that the team was hoping Marchand would come back “early in the season.”
The 38-year-old also missed the final 19 games of last season because of an undisclosed injury, though it’s still not known whether that issue is connected to the one that required surgery. Even with the setback, Marchand was one of Florida’s most dangerous producers. He finished with 27 goals and 54 points in 52 games, and he was the only Panthers skater to play at least half the team’s games while still averaging a point per game.
Marchand is set to begin the second year of the six-year deal he signed after helping Florida win the Stanley Cup for the second straight season. His contract carries a $5.25 million average annual value through the 2030-31 season.
Across 1,152 career regular-season NHL games, Marchand has 451 goals and 583 assists for 1,034 points. In the playoffs, he has 158 points in 180 games and has won Stanley Cups with Florida in 2025 and with the Boston Bruins 14 years earlier.
Gadjovich’s news adds another tough early-season wrinkle. The Whitby, Ont. native was already coming off an upper-body injury he suffered last October, which ended his season after only 10 games. He had three assists before being shut down.
The 27-year-old is now entering the first season of the two-year extension he signed just before that injury. The contract carries a cap hit of $905,000.
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One of the first items on the docket is Brad Marchands recovery after offseason surgery, with general manager Bill Zito saying the winger is expected back early in the season. The Panthers will handle that return carefully, and how quickly Marchand fits back in will be one of the early tests for a camp that already feels important for a group trying to stay near the top while managing the demands that come with another serious run. [Read more 🡒]