Boston Bruins heated division rival loses key player for significant amount of time

For the second straight summer, the Florida Panthers are celebrating a Stanley Cup championship. For the second straight summer, they are celebrating at the expense of the Edmonton Oilers.

However, in what comes as little surprise to anyone inside the organization, they will not start defense of their second title with a key piece of the team, and they are likely going to be without him well beyond the beginning of the 2025-26 season.

NHL insider reports Florida Panthers to begin 2025-26 season without star forward Matthew Tkachuk

Dave Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported on Friday that Matthew Tkachuk underwent surgery and will miss the start of the season. However, the timeline is unclear, but it sounds like he could be out of action until after the New Year.

This is a big loss for Florida, which has become a heated Atlantic Division rival of the Bruins after bouncing them from the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. The first exit was in the first round after the Black and Gold's record-setting season for wins and points. Florida overcame a 3-1 first-round deficit to complete a historic collapse of the Bruins.

Now Florida will tell you that they don't care where they finish in the standings as long as they make the playoffs. That was evident last season when they stumbled down the stretch before turning it on once the playoffs began and rolled to another title, winning a Game 7 in Toronto to add to Maple Leafs' fans' misery, then won the Cup despite not having home-ice advantage against Edmonton.

Florida reloaded for another run and will be just fine. They could benefit from this as Tkachuk is missing possibly half of the season, then returning and having less miles on his body for the postseason will be a big benefit. Oh, and they also still have Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett.