The Florida Panthers are bracing for life without Aleksander Barkov again, and the timing could hardly be worse.
The captain left Thursday night's 4-3 overtime loss in San Jose with a knee issue. He's listed day-to-day heading into Sunday's game in Anaheim.
Day-to-day sounds harmless. Coming from a player who missed all of last season after reconstructive surgery on his right knee, it lands a lot heavier.
Barkov was scheduled for an MRI on Friday, with the team camped in southern California. Anaheim and Los Angeles still remain on this four-game road trip.
He hadn't cracked the scoresheet yet, held without a point through 2 games. But nobody in South Florida pays a center $10,000,000 for his October box scores.
The bigger headache is the math. Florida is pinned against the salary cap and carrying 21 players, two short of the 23-man max.
Uvis Balinskis is the only spare body, and he was already pressed into duty Thursday when Gustav Forsling was a late scratch. Forsling is now listed day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
Paul Maurice may have to turn a defenseman into a forward
Balinskis grew up as a forward before switching to defense as a teenager. Paul Maurice has dressed him on the fourth line before.
It's the hockey version of duct-taping a flat tire on the highway shoulder. You'll reach the next exit, and that's about it.
Running a West Coast road trip with 21 bodies was a risky bet by Bill Zito's front office. Two games in, it's already costing them.
So what happens if the knee news turns out worse than day-to-day?
If Barkov misses a month or longer, Florida can place him on LTIR and claw back part of his cap hit. That opens the door to a call-up from AHL Charlotte.
Charlotte centers like Cole Reinhardt or Cole Schwindt would be the logical targets. Either one could plug a hole on the third or fourth line.
The catch is the fine print. A non-season-ending LTIR placement requires a player to sit out 10 games and 24 days, a heavy price for a captain who might be back next week.
Up front, the ripple runs straight through the middle. Lars Eller, 37, took shifts between Sam Reinhart and Brady Tkachuk after Barkov went down Thursday.
Eller has one power-play assist so far on an $850,000 deal. He's a stopgap on the top line, nothing more.
Anton Lundell or Sam Bennett could slide up instead. Maurice could also reunite the Tkachuk brothers with Bennett and send Lundell back to Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe, a trio that has clicked before.
Reinhart could use the jolt. He's still searching for his first point, and Brady Tkachuk sits at a -1 rating through two games.
Somebody has to score. Eetu Luostarinen leads the club with 2 goals, one on the power play, which tells you how much the depth has had to carry.
Florida sits at 1-0-1, second in its division, with an even goal differential. Sunday in Anaheim, then Tuesday in Los Angeles, will show whether that holds without the captain.
And if the MRI points to weeks instead of days, Zito faces a choice no GM enjoys: protect the cap or protect the roster. He may not get to do both.
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Should the Panthers put Aleksander Barkov on LTIR now to free up cap space?
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