It appears Brad Marchand's season could be done

The veteran Panthers winger was placed on LTIR

Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Sasha Barkov's season never got started.

Matthew Tkachuk's season started too late.

And it seems as if Brad Marchand's season could be ending early.

The veteran, champion Florida Panthers forward, who has been dealing with a lower body injury for some time, was officially plaed by Long Term Injured Reserve, retroactive to March 6th -- in order for the Panthers to activate defenseman Seth Jones.

The designation requires 10 games, or 24 days, whichever comes last.

It comes at a time when the Panthers have essentially faced the reality that they will not be able to defend their two straight Stanley Cup championships in the upcoming playoffs. Injuries have ravaged the Panthers from training camp forward, all across their forward lines and defensive pairings. Few key players have been spared, and recently current leading scorer Sam Reinhart has been banged up as well.

Marchand has had a solid season in spite of it all, with 27 points and 27 assists for a total of 54 points in 52 games, his first time averaging at least one point per game since 2021-22 with the Boston Bruins. But he clearly wasn't himself in the Olympics, after realizing his dream of qualifying for the Canadian team at this late stage of his career -- scratched for a few games and ineffective when he played.

Since then, there's been a question of how much he would play for the Panthers the rest of the way, or be shut down for surgery and recuperation.

This move suggests movement toward the latter. Florida can make the playoffs, and did hold onto goalie Sergie Bobrovsky past the trade deadline, but they can't afford many missteps, and would need just about everyone healthy. That simply isn't going to happen, even if Jones -- a key figure in the 2025 run -- is back on the ice tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. The Panthers were just 12-14 without Jones, who ate a lot of ice time on the blue line and balanced out the team's special teams units.

Marchand will be back with the Panthers next season regardless. He signed a contract last offseason that could take him up to age 43, and he's become a fixture in the South Florida community in his short time, just like he was in Boston. The Panthers' goal this lengthier summer will be to get their bodies right, for a rise back into contention.