Panthers win an afterthought after injury to Aaron Ekblad

The Florida Panthers completed the sweep on Dallas this weekend with a 4-1 win against the Stars on Sunday night. Unfortunately for the Cats, this win was an afterthought after their star defenseman Aaron Ekblad went down with an injury midway through the second period.

Ekblad took an awkward fall near the boards after a collision with a Stars player and had to be taken off the ice with a stretcher. 

The 25-year-old has been with the team since 2014 when he was selected first overall by the Panthers in the 2014 NHL draft. Ekblad was having a career year this season, currently he is tied for the league lead in goals by a defenseman with 11 and is ranked top 20 in points for his position.

As of now, we do not know how much time Ekblad will miss. Any amount of time without him is a big loss for the Panthers, he leads all skaters in total ice time, averaging 25:31 a game and is the team’s number one defenseman. 

On top of Ekblad’s injury, captain Aleksander Barkov has been out the last four games with a lower body injury and Patric Hornqvist has missed the last three games with an undisclosed injury.