{"id":681555,"date":"2026-03-25T20:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T20:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/681555\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T20:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T20:52:10","slug":"victor-hedman-taking-leave-of-absence-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/681555\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Hedman Taking Leave Of Absence \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Lightning announced Wednesday that captain\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hedmavi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-25_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Victor Hedman<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>will be out for at least one additional game as he takes a temporary leave of absence for personal reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Hedman has already missed Tampa Bay\u2019s last three contests. He left their game against the Canucks last Thursday after less than five minutes of ice time and didn\u2019t return due to what the team labeled an illness.<\/p>\n<p>That, plus a whole host of other injuries, has limited the usually durable Hedman to under half of the Bolts\u2019 games this season. He has only managed 33 appearances, currently tracking for a career low, including lockout and COVID-shortened seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Hedman, who finished fifth in Norris Trophy voting just last year, hasn\u2019t had nearly the same effect when dressed, either. At 18:52 of ice time per game, he\u2019s averaging under 20 minutes for the first time in his 17-year career, and his 0.52 points per game is his worst output since his early 20s.<\/p>\n<p>The Bolts have maintained a 27-7-3 record without Hedman dressed this season, including a 2-0-1 stretch in their last three without him. They certainly miss his presence, even lower in the lineup, with depth options <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/carlide01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-25_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Declan Carlile<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/crozima01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-25_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Maxwell Crozier<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>sidelined, but they\u2019ve been able to keep their system rolling and intact this season amid a bevy of other injuries on defense.<\/p>\n<p>At this point in the season, the Lightning have essentially locked up home ice in the first round with a 89.5% chance of finishing in the top two in the Atlantic Division, per <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/moneypuck.com\/predictions.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MoneyPuck<\/a>. A playoff spot is all but clinched, but the race with the Sabres for the division title is still wide open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lightning announced Wednesday that captain\u00a0Victor Hedman\u00a0will be out for at least one additional game as he takes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":681556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[42],"tags":[1649,293,62,3106,67,132,68,142068],"class_list":["post-681555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-newsstand","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-victor-hedman"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116291800186141228","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}