Tkachuk likely out until December for Panthers with lower-body injury

Forward limited to 52 games last season with torn adductor muscle, sports hernia injury

Tkachuk injury update 91725

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Matthew Tkachuk will miss the start of the season with a lower-body injury and is likely out until December for the Florida Panthers, general manager Bill Zito said Wednesday.

“Don’t hold me to that,” Zito said. “My internet medical degree.”

The 27-year-old forward and two-time Stanley Cup winner was limited to 52 regular-season games last season and had 57 points (22 goals, 35 assists). He sustained a torn adductor muscle and a sports hernia injury on the same side while playing for the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

Bill Guerin, general manager of Team USA for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, said they’re “planning and expecting” to have Tkachuk for the tournament this February, the first time NHL players will participate in the winter games since the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

“Planning and expecting (to have him),” Guerin said at the United States Men’s Olympic Orientation Camp on Aug. 27. “I mean, that’s just what I have to do. And if something changes, then we’ll change it, but he’s on and he’s going to be on until he can’t.”

Tkachuk was not one of the 44 players to attend the camp at the Saint John’s Hotel and Resort in Plymouth, Michigan. He and his brother, Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, were among the first six players named to the U.S. preliminary roster June 16, with centers Jack Eichel (Vegas Golden Knights) and Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs) and defensemen Quinn Hughes (Vancouver Canucks) and Charlie McAvoy (Boston Bruins).

“He called me and just kind of told me what was going on,” Guerin said. “It wouldn’t be great for him get on a plane and fly right now. He didn’t have to be here. He was upbeat. He’s always upbeat.”

The Tkachuk brothers became the face of U.S. hockey during the 4 Nations Face-Off, each getting into a fight in the opening seconds of a preliminary-round win against Canada. Matthew sustained an injury in the tournament and was only able to play four shifts in a 3-2 overtime loss to Canada in the championship game, but he stayed on the bench the entire time, cheering on his countrymen.

“I think he represents, in a lot of ways, the identity of the team and what we are trying to become as a group,” U.S. coach Mike Sullivan said. “He’s a fierce competitor. He has incredible care for his teammates.

“We certainly missed him in the 4 Nations final.”

Tkachuk missed the final nine weeks of the regular season and returned for the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on April 22. He played all 23 postseason games and tied forwards Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe for the team lead in points with 23 (eight goals, 15 assists).

After helping the Panthers win their second straight Stanley Cup title, Tkachuk said his adductor muscle was torn from the bone.

“I wouldn’t be here without the trainers and the doctors and those people, and that’s what makes this Cup more special for me is how hard it was just to be out there and to get to the point of playing,” Tkachuk said June 18.

“I owe those guys. This Cup is because of them for me, and I’m so lucky.”

Tkachuk scored what would prove to be the Cup-winning goal when he gave the Panthers a 2-0 lead with 47 seconds left in the first period against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final. He said he wasn’t sure whether he would be ready for the start of the playoffs even a few days before they began.

“He was a mess,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said at the time. “That’s the medical term. He was a mess.

“Matthew’s played with some injuries. We weren’t hopeful at the start that he would survive the first round. Just didn’t think he could do it, but what he does so well is he’s so smart. He managed himself around the ice and around the game that he could still produce, but he wasn’t taking hits, and he wasn’t giving hits. He was in open ice.

“Then he just kind of slowly built that and slowly got a little more … the closer we got toward the end of the Final, it didn’t matter. Tears it off the bone again, fine, come back in January. Just would help the team win. And his last four games for me were the four best games he’s played for the Florida Panthers.”

Selected by the Calgary Flames with the No. 6 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, Tkachuk has 636 points (240 goals, 396 assists) in 642 regular-season games with the Flames and Panthers, and 84 points (32 goals, 52 assists) in 94 playoff games.

He was acquired by Florida with a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft in a trade with Calgary on July 22, 2022, for forwards Jonathan Huberdeau and Cole Schwindt, defenseman MacKenzie Weegar and a conditional first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.

Zito also said Wednesday that Tomas Nosek has a “long-term injury” and is out indefinitely. The 33-year-old forward had nine points (one goal, eight assists) in 59 regular-season games and three assists in 16 playoff games last season.