After being placed on injured reserve Thursday, it was announced that Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman Victor Hedman will undergo a procedure on his elbow on Monday.
The Lightning blue liner appeared to suffer an upper body injury last week against the Montreal Canadiens. Head coach Jon Cooper then announced on Thursday that Hedman was seeking second opinions on the injury, and the team would have more information later.
As it would appear, the verdicts came back in favour of a clean up procedure, which will sideline Hedman for several weeks, but reportedly have him back in playing shape prior to the 2026 Winter Olympics. The 34 year old is set to play for Sweden at the upcoming Winter Games in Italy.
“A rested player is an effective player. And the one thing with Hedman is he’s not 22 anymore,” Cooper told reporters. “But I’m not worried about because he keeps himself in such good shape. I’m not worried about that part. It’s the mental side of things when you have to sit out for six weeks, and I think that’s the part that is the toughest. So you got to get through that. But his body would be in good shape.”
Tampa’s all-time leader in games, and points/assists/goals for a defenceman was averaging just over 21 minutes of ice time per night prior to the injury. Prior to his elbow issue, Hedman missed 12 games with an undisclosed injury earlier this season. As a result, he’s suited up for just 18 of Tampa’s 32 games played thus far in 2025-26.
Across those 18 games, he’s registered 12 assists, 6 of which have come on the power play. The Swedish blue liner has however yet to find the back of the net this year.
In better news for the Lightning, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has missed the last 5 games with an undisclosed injury, appears to be nearing a return. The 31 year old practiced on Friday and appears to be targeting a return to the lineup on Monday when the team plays host to the Florida Panthers.
Photo: Sarah Connors. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.