The Florida Panthers return to the ice on Saturday night, facing the Minnesota Wild. They will be without Brad Marchand in that game. Marchand left the Tuesday game against the Los Angeles Kings due to an injury.

Now, an injury timeline for the forward is becoming clearer, according to Pierre LeBrun, speaking on TSN's Early Trading.

“We don't know 100 percent because the reality is that Brad Marchand was going for an MRI with Panthers doctors on this day, on Thursday. So until they get all that imaging done, no one knows for sure,” LeBrun said. “However, the early word that I'm hearing is that we are talking weeks and not months for Brad Marchand. Which, in itself, is tremendous news. Now whether that is four weeks or longer than that, six weeks, who knows? But until the MRI is done, we won't know for sure, but my sense is we are not talking about season-ending, which, in itself, is tremendous news, given the images of seeing him go down the other night in LA.”

Marchand collided late in the second period with defenseman Brandt Clarke of the Kings. Clarke's stick hit Marchand in the face, sending Marchand to the ice, and colliding with both his teammate Brady Tkachuk and the boards. Marchand was grabbing his left knee and needed help to the bench. Clarke was given a four-minute double minor for high-sticking on the play.

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It was just the second game this season that Marchand had played with the team. In the first game back on October 4, he scored his first goal of the year. He logged 9:36 of ice time against the Kings, going without a point.

This is the second time in less than a week that the Panthers got positive news on an injury that looked like it could be serious. Fellow forward Aleksander Barkov is expected to be out just six to eight weeks, after initial speculation that he could be missing ten to 12 weeks.