Florida Panthers center Vincent Trocheck is out indefinitely after undergoing surgery to repair his ankle which was fractured in a gruesome fall Monday.
Trocheck chased a puck behind the net against the Senators but appeared to lose balance and his leg bent awkwardly beneath him. Play was stopped for several minutes while trainers attended to Trocheck, who was carted off on a stretcher.
“Vinny is a tremendous competitor and leader for our club,” Panthers general manager Dale Tallon said in a statement. “It’s never easy to see a player and person like him suffer an injury like this, but we are confident that he will make a full recovery and be back on the ice with our team this season.”
Trocheck tweeted “surgery was a success” and “I’ll be back before you know it.”
Florida recalled forward Denis Malgin from Springfield of the AHL in advance of Wednesday night’s game at Tampa Bay.
This season, Trocheck has 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) in 17 games for the Panthers. Last season he was an All-Star with a career-best 75 points (31 goals, 44 assists) in 82 games.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.