Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic and TSN broke major news this Saturday afternoon. On Thursday, New York Islanders forward Mathew Barzal underwent a “minor procedure” to address an injured kneecap.
Barzal injured the knee on February 1 in Tampa Bay, blocking a shot from Nikita Kucherov in the dying minutes of the Islanders’ eventual victory against the Lightning. The Islanders announced Barzal as “out indefinitely” and refused to give any timeline.
LeBrun estimates the recovery time to be around six weeks, which can vary. This is major good news for the Islanders, who initially feared Barzal could be out for the season. Instead, if the timeline is six weeks, he could return midway through March.
The Islanders can move Barzal to long-term injured reserve at any time for extra cap space for any potential trade deadline acquisition while maintaining flexibility to activate Barzal when and if he’s ready.
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