Aleksander Barkov leaves Panthers’ overtime loss to Sharks with injury

Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov left Thursday’s game against the San Jose Sharks in the second period of the eventual 4-3 overtime loss with an apparent left leg injury.

Read more Mensah leads No. 4 Hurricanes into night game at Clemson with 5-0 start on the line

Barkov, who missed all of the 2025-26 season due to an injury to the ACL and MCL in his right knee, fell to the ice after a battle on the boards with Sharks defenseman Darnell Nurse and forward Zack Ostapchuk a little more than eight minutes into the middle frame at SAP Center as his left leg buckled.

After being down briefly on the ice, Barkov immediately went to the team’s dressing room, walking under his own power but with a noticeable limp. Barkov threw his gloves in visible frustration as he left the ice.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice didn’t have an immediate update on Barkov postgame, saying he will be further evaluated on Friday.

Thursday was just Barkov’s second game back with the Panthers.

“He’s the biggest piece to this puzzle,” Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen said in an intermission interview on Scripps Sports. “Fingers crossed he’s OK. … He means a lot to this team.”

Lars Eller, who opened the season as Florida’s fourth-line center, took over the bulk of Barkov’s minutes centering Brady Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart.

Florida was down 2-0 at the time of Barkov’s departure and fell behind 3-0 about two-and-a-half minutes later.

Read more A look inside María Corina Machado’s secret efforts to return to Venezuela

The Panthers (1-0-1) rallied to tie the game on two goals from Luostarinen — one on the power play late in the second period, one at even strength about five minutes into the third — and one from Matthew Tkachuk, but the Sharks (1-0-0) sealed the win on Luca Cagnoni’s tally 3:14 into the five-minute overtime period.

“We pushed harder in the third, and we got some results,” Luostarinen said. “We were on the puck and we had a lot of chances.”

Added Matthew Tkachuk: “We could have gone one of two ways. We could have felt bad for ourselves and mailed it in, but I thought we played really well, especially in the third. That’s a gritty point that we got.”

Barkov’s injury was the second notable news of the day. Defenseman Gustav Forsling was a late scratch with an upper-body injury. Maurice said Forsling is day to day. Uvis Balinskis drew into the lineup in Forsling’s absence, and Dmitry Kulikov moved to the top defense pair with Aaron Ekblad.

The Panthers continue their season-opening four-game road trip against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday (8 p.m., Scripps Sports). The trip concludes Tuesday against the Los Angeles Kings (10 p.m., ESPN).

Read more Unleashed by Florida lawmakers, landowners move to convert farms into subdivisions

This story was originally published October 1, 2026 at 11:51 PM.