Panthers’ Tomas Nosek suffered broken leg against Rangers

In Monday’s game against the Rangers, nothing seemed out of the ordinary for Nosek, having registered 15:50 of ice time across 18 shifts, with his last shift coming in the closing moments of a 3-2 win for the Panthers.

Nosek suffered a massive knee injury while training during the offseason, leading to the 33-year-old sitting on the shelf until he finally made his season debut on March 3. In the 21 games he appeared in, the Czech winger scored two goals and two assists for four points, registering a plus/minus of -8 while averaging a little over 14 minutes of ice time per game.

The injury came just a couple of months after Nosek helped the Panthers win a second straight championship, posting three assists in 16 playoff games.

The injury to Nosek just adds to the borderline laughable saga the Panthers have endured this year. On top of captain Aleksander Barkov getting hurt in the preseason, leading to him missing the entire campaign, key players like Sam Reinhart, Brad Marchand, Aaron Ekblad, Niko Mikkolas and Anton Lundell have missed considerable time. Heading into the team’s final game of the season on Wednesday night against the Detroit Red Wings, the Panthers have had a total of 526 man-games lost due to injury.

Nosek was on a one-year contract that he signed this past July, with a cap hit of $775,000.