statement released by the Lightning<\/a>, saying he hoped it might help others take care of their mental health. He also said he\u2019s in a \u201cmuch better place\u201d now.<\/p>\n\u201cWearing this jersey \u2014 and serving as captain \u2014 is the greatest responsibility of my professional life,\u201d Hedman said. \u201cThat responsibility doesn\u2019t only apply on the ice. Over the past couple of months, I made the decision to step away and focus on my mental health. It was not an easy decision, but it was the right one. I\u2019ve always believed that being a leader means doing what\u2019s best for the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this case, it also meant doing what was necessary to take care of myself, so I can be the best player, teammate, husband and father I expect to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hedman has been one of the NHL\u2019s top defensemen for a decade, winning the Norris Trophy in 2018 and Conn Smythe Trophy in 2020. He twice won the Stanley Cup with the Lightning.<\/p>\n
However, he endured a difficult 2025-26 season, battling an elbow injury that eventually required surgery before returning just ahead of the Milan Olympics, where he sat out the quarterfinal game due to a lower-body injury as Sweden was eliminated. He played just 33 games for the Lightning, registering one goal and 17 points.<\/p>\n
Hedman has three years remaining on his contract and sounded hopeful about the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate to have strong support from my family, my teammates and the organization, my therapist, and I\u2019m in a much better place today,\u201d Hedman said. \u201cThis is something that exists in our game, more than people see. If this moment helps make it easier for others to take care of themselves when they need to, that matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of this team, and I look forward to what\u2019s ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning captain Victor Hedman revealed Tuesday that he missed the team\u2019s final 15 regular-season games and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[276],"tags":[18,135,19,17,167,502,63427,206149],"class_list":{"0":"post-469807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-mental-health","13":"tag-mentalhealth","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116522995484050849","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}