Major update on Aleksander Barkov less than 3 months after knee surgery

The Florida Panthers have reached three straight Stanley Cup Finals, coming away Champions in the past two, but heading into the 2025/26 campaign, they were dealt two major blows to two key pieces of their lineup.

The first was the injury update to Matthew Tkachuk, who is expected to return before the Olympics in February, but the other was much more grim as captain Aleksander Barkov tore his ACL and MCL before the season began, with the expectation that he'd be out for the entire season.

While the door wasn't completely closed on a shock return this season, the belief was that the team would use the LTIR money that Barkov gives them to add a player to replace him.

However, the latest update from David Dwork reveals that recently, Barkov began skating again, keeping the door slightly open on a return for the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the Panthers seek to be the first team to three-peat since the early 1980's.

Without Barkov and Tkachuk, the Panthers started slow but have turned things around as they have a 21-15-3 record on the season, and fully healthy, this is once again the best team in the Eastern Conference.

Ultimately though, there's still a good chance that we don't see Barkov back on the ice for this team in 2025/26, but given how inspirational he's been for this organization, fans will continue to hold out hope as the season rolls along.