“Three weeks he will be back on the ice, another three to rehab,’’ Maurice said after practice at Baptist Health IcePlex.
The Marchand news comes on the heels of Aleksander Barkov’s injury diagnosis of being out 6-8 weeks.
With the way each injury looked in the moment, the Panthers will take good news when it comes.
“When they go down and you see that, you’re worried,’’ Maurice said. “We went through that last year.’’
The Panthers lost over 540-man games to injury last year, with Barkov and Marchand accounting for quite a few of them.
Barkov missed the entire 2025-26 season after surgery on his right knee following an injury on the first day of training camp; Marchand was shut down after Florida’s win against the host Detroit Red Wings on March 6 due to a lower-body injury that eventually required offseason surgery. At totaled, he missed 30 games last season.
Barkov was playing in his second game of the season when he was injured fighting for a puck during a 4-3 overtime loss at the San Jose Sharks on Oct. 1.
He told NHL.com on Thursday he was feeling good.
"I got good news," Barkov said. "I'll be back soon, as soon as possible. Obviously, it's not the thing you want to have, especially after what I went through last year. But it is what it is. Trying to stay positive, and the team is doing really well. It was a good road trip, so I'm really, really happy."
Marchand was also playing in his second game for the Panthers (2-0-2) this season Tuesday when he was injured.
While driving the net, Marchand was high-sticked by Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke, which caused him to contort awkwardly into the right post. Clarke was assessed a double-minor penalty on the play.
Marchand stayed down for a few minutes and was attended to by a trainer before being helped off the ice by Brady Tkachuk and Niko Mikkola.
The injury came late in the second period of Florida’s 2-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena.
In his season debut on Oct. 4, Marchand scored the game-tying goal with 1:50 remaining in the third period to help the Panthers salvage a point in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
“Yeah, brutal,’’ Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk Tuesday said when asked about Marchand.
Tkachuk and the rest of the Panthers were in a much better state of mind Friday morning.
“You go from having that deep pit in your stomach to getting somewhat good news,’’ Tkachuk said. “They’re still going to be out, but we’re going to welcome him back whenever he can come back. So important to our team.’’
