The Florida Panthers pulled Jacob Markstrom after the first period on Monday in a 5-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
After the game, head coach Paul Maurice downplayed the injury. He said that Markstrom “tightened up,” but he also said there was “no injury.”
The Panthers’ roster move on Tuesday morning would suggest differently.
Florida is in Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets, and a new goalie is joining them.
Panthers Add Goalie
The Panthers added goalie Cooper Black to the roster on Tuesday, according to beat reporter Alex Baumgartner.
Black is a massive 6-foot-8 goalie originally from the state of Michigan. He has yet to make his NHL debut.
He played college hockey at Dartmouth before spending the past four seasons in the AHL with the Charlotte Checkers — as well as a stint in the ECHL with the Savannah Ghost Pirates.
Black has played two games so far this season for the Checkers and allowed six goals while saving 90.6% of shots he has faced.
He had a 90.3% save rate last season for the Checkers.
It doesn’t seem like the Panthers would’ve called up Black unless they felt Markstrom would be unavailable on Tuesday. And if that’s the case, it suggests that there must be some kind of injury ongoing, or an odd situation that hasn’t been disclosed.
Black isn’t likely to start. The Panthers will probably start Akira Schmid, who came on in relief of Markstrom on Monday.
But even if Black is just the backup, he’ll be as close as he’s ever been to his NHL debut.
And in the meantime, Markstrom’s status will be the latest Panthers veteran to deal with an early-season injury.
Brad Marchand Injury Update
The idea that this move might be coming came when Brad Marchand was officially placed on injured reserve on Monday night.
The Panthers wouldn’t have needed to make that move unless they were planning to make a call-up. It turns out that Black was that call-up.
Marchand is likely out for a month at least with a knee injury, potentially longer, but the Panthers at least got the good news that it wasn’t a season-ending injury.
He’s now on IR, although not yet on long-term IR — a placement on LTIR would really only matter if the Panthers needed to move around some additional salary, because the cap implications of that list are different.
For now, Marchand remains out, as does Aleksander Barkov, and seemingly you can add Markstrom to that absence list — although it’s not yet clear for how long.
Panthers Add Goalie After Jacob Markstrom, Brad Marchand Injury Updates