NHL Injury Returns: Barkov, Demko, Seguin Set for Camp

Seven NHL players who lost most of last season to injury are on track to be healthy when training camps open next month, per Pro Hockey Rumors.

Aleksander Barkov is the headliner, and he already answered the biggest question about the knee.

The Panthers captain tore the ACL and MCL in his right knee on Sept. 25, the opening day of camp, when his leg bent under him in a collision with Niko Mikkola. Surgery came two days later with a seven-to-nine-month window attached to it.

He never played an NHL game all year. Florida finished 40-38-4 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2018-19, one year after winning back-to-back Cups.

Rather than wait for September to find out, Barkov tested the knee in Switzerland. He captained Finland to World Championship gold in May, posting three goals and 11 points in 10 games and making the tournament all-star team 324 days after his last competitive shift.

Take a look at the celebration in Zurich:

Thatcher Demko is the murkier case. A hip issue ended his season in late January after 20 games and an .897 save percentage, the third straight year an injury has eaten into his workload, and Vancouver maintains he will be ready for the start of camp.

Demko posted a photo from his first skate since the surgery in late June.

“Been a long road,” he wrote on Instagram. “A lot more work ahead, but let’s celebrate the good days!”

Here is Rick Dhaliwal with the post:

Tyler Seguin’s year ended after 27 games when he tore his ACL on Dec. 2 in a collision with Vladislav Gavrikov. That made it two straight seasons cut short, following the hip surgery that limited him to 20 games in 2024-25. He said in May that his rehab was on the standard nine-month ACL timeline, which lands right on the opening of camp.

Kevin Fiala had 40 points in 56 games and sat second on the Kings in scoring when he fractured his lower leg in a collision with Tom Wilson at the Olympics. Ken Holland said afterward that Fiala would have been available by the third round had Los Angeles gotten that far.

Philadelphia gets Tyson Foerster back on a fresh eight-year deal after an arm injury wiped out four months of his breakout. The Islanders get two of them in Alexander Romanov, whose shoulder surgery cost him 65 games, and Kyle Palmieri, whose 223-game ironman streak ended with a torn ACL in November.

Florida has the most riding on it. The Panthers lost their captain on the first day of camp and their playoff streak went with him, and Barkov is the one name on this list who has already played a full tournament on the repaired joint.