Panthers provide injury updates for five players
Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice provided injury updates for several players on Saturday.
Paul Maurice: Sam Reinhart not going on west coast road trip. Seth Jones may return this week.
#TimeToHunt welcomed back Carter Verhaeghe and Anton Lundell to practice, and the pair of forwards will be back in the lineup on Sunday. Unfortunately, Sam Bennett is day-to-day, and Sam Reinhart will not travel with the club for their four-game road trip. thehockeynews.com/nhl/florida-pa…
Maurice announced that Reinhart will not be joining the Panthers on their upcoming road trip through the west coast. Reinhart had missed Tuesday’s 4-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings due to an undisclosed injury, and while he return for their 2-1 overtime win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, it appears the injury is a bigger issue than initially thought.
With Reinhart not joining the Panthers for their upcoming road trip, that means he’ll miss the next four games. Their next home game is on Tuesday, March 24th against the Seattle Kraken, so that will be his next possible option for returning to the lineup.
Reinhart has performed at his usual level since joining the Panthers despite his team’s struggles this season, as he has 29 goals and 32 assists for 61 points in 64 games.
Sam Bennett is also day-to-day with an injury, although his status for Sunday’s game against the Kraken is not confirmed. Bennett has had his best regular season yet with 24 goals and 26 assists for 50 points in 65 games.
However, it’s not all bad news for the Panthers, as Anton Lundell and Carter Verhaeghe are expected to return to the lineup on Sunday. Both players missed Thursday’s win with undisclosed injuries, but neither were severe injuries.
Lundell is set to put up career-best numbers with 17 goals and 26 assists for 43 points in 61 games, while Verhaeghe continues to struggle compared to his expectations with 19 goals and 27 assists for 46 points in 63 games.
Maurice also announced that Jones is a possibility to return this week. The Panthers play all four games of their road trip during the week, so it could be at any point of the road trip, but the actual return date remains unknown.
Jones has missed the last 25 games with an upper-body injury he sustained during the Winter Classic against the New York Rangers. The injury also caused him to miss the 2026 Winter Olympics after he was selected to the United States team a few days prior to the injury.
Before the injury, Jones was having a solid season for the Panthers, with six goals and 18 assists for 24 points in 40 games.
The Panthers currently sit in seventh in the Atlantic Division with a 33-29-3 record, and are nine points behind the Boston Bruins for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. Florida will look to extend their three-game winning streak when they visit the Kraken on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.