Florida Panthers F Jonathan Huberdeau Injured, Out Long-Term

Florida Panthers F Jonathan Huberdeau Was Helped Off the Ice on Saturday After Taking a Skate Blade to the Back of the Ankle. GM Tom Rowe Confirmed the 23-Year-Old Will Miss an Extended Period of Time (Out Long-Term)

Florida Panthers F Jonathan Huberdeau is expected to miss a significant amount of time after suffering a nasty injury in Saturday’s preseason tilt against New Jersey.

Huberdeau, 23, took an accidental skate to the back of his ankle by Devils F Sergey Kalinin. He attempted to skate off by himself but wound up needing help after it was apparent that he couldn’t put weight down on his left leg.

There has been a lot of speculation already to the severity of the injury since these types of incidents tend to range vastly in recovery time. Early Sunday afternoon, Panthers GM Tom Rowe told Sun Sentinal’s Harvey Fialkov that Huberdeau is expected to be out long-term. The most recent reports leaking out are suggesting he could miss upwards of three-to-four-months.

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As TSN‘s Bob McKenzie pointed out on twitter on Saturday night. If it were just a minor partial tear of the tendon, the timetable for return could range between four-to-six weeks. However, a severed Achilles can keep a player out for upwards of six-plus months.

Think of it this way. Dallas Stars superstar Tyler Seguin experienced a partial tear, which kept him out of the entire playoffs (other than one game) and seemingly continued to nag him heading into the World Cup of Hockey. Sadly, this is almost a best case scenario with this type of injury.

Remember Joni Pitkanen? He was reportedly attempting an NHL comeback in 2015-16. He wound up suiting up for three games in the SM-Liiga for Karpat, but it was the first time playing since the 2012-13 season. For those who don’t remember, Pitkanen suffered a devastating Achilles injury that basically ended his career in Carolina. There were even reports that he was still unable to put his foot in a skate more than a year after the fact.

Since it sounds as though Florida Panthers F Jonathan Huberdeau only suffered a partial tear of the Achilles’ tendon – it’s still a massive blow (but could have been much worse) to this organization that invested so much money this past summer in hopes of helping bring a Stanley Cup back to the Sunshine State.

Huberdeau carries a $3.25 million dollar cap hit for one more year before his six-year $5.9 million dollars/year contract kicks in. By moving Jonathan to the long-term IR, the Florida Panthers will have $14,726,668 in cap space (including Nick Bjugstad‘s $4.1 million dollar cap hit also on the IR).

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With Bjugstad set to return in a month, it realistically leaves $10,626,668 dollars to replace Florida Panthers F Jonathan Huberdeau. The question is, will ownership be okay (or even feel the need) to spend upwards of another $10 million dollars after dropping over a quarter-billion ($250 million-plus) in the offseason?

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