After ‘watching for way too long,’ Seth Jones aims to end Panthers season strong
Seth Jones, like so many of his Florida Panthers teammates, missed far too much playing time this season for his liking. The defenseman broke his collarbone three minutes into the Panthers’ Winter Classic matchup against the New York Rangers on Jan. 2 It sidelined Jones or 10-and-a-half weeks, forcing him to miss 26 Panthers games and an opportunity to represent the United States at the Winter Olympics.
“I was watching for way too long,” Jones said after his first game back, Florida’s 5-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on March 17.
Now, as the Panthers play out the string of a season that will end without a playoff berth and without a chance to contend for a third consecutive Stanley Cup, Jones is making up for lost time and trying to finish off an individual campaign that began with so much promise on as strong of a note as possible.
Jones led the Panthers in average ice time (23:29) and paced Florida defensemen in goals (6), assists (18) and points (24) through 40 games prior to the injury.
The Panthers were in the thick of the playoff race before he was sidelined, too. Florida entered the Winter Classic 21-16-3 and one point back of a wild card spot. Florida, already dealing with a slew of other injuries (namely to Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Dmitry Kulikov, Tomas Nosek and Jonah Gadjovich at the time) then went 12-14-0 in his absence to all but knock them out of playoff contention. Additional injuries to Brad Marchand, Sam Reinhart, Anton Lundell, Niko Mikkola and Uvis Balinskis over the second half of the season further damaged their postseason prospects.
“You missed him so much when he was out,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of Jones. “He can be a dominant force in the game.”
Entering Florida’s home game against the Boston Bruins on Thursday, Jones has averaged 24:38 of ice time per game while producing five assists, blocking five shots and laying out six hits. Florida is outscoring opponents 8-7 when Jones is on the ice at 5-on-5 in this span.
“It’s just kind of getting back in the flow of things,” Jones said. “Trying to get my feet moving and then just making solid plays like breakouts and defensive plays. I’m not too worried about the offense because that’ll come. Really, it’s the defensive side of the puck, which I was super focused on.”
And Jones has played with an assortment of teammates on the blue line in that span. Jones normally works with Mikkola on Florida’s second pair, but they were together for just two games before Mikkola sustained a season-ending knee injury. He has gotten extensive time since then with Kulikov and Donovan Sebrango.
“We’ve kind of been all over the place,” Jones said.
And more injuries have hit the blue line.
Kulikov (broken nose) and Aaron Ekblad (broken finger) both sustained what looked like major injuries in the third period of Florida’s 6-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday. Couple that with Mikkola and Uvis Balinskis (broken foot) already being ruled out for the season, and the Panthers have just two regular defensemen — Jones and Gustav Forsling — left for the final eight games of the season, with Kulikov potentially returning at some point as well. Sebrango and Mike Benning are next on the depth chart. Florida on Wednesday recalled Tobias Bjornfot and Mikulas Hovorka to round out the Panthers’ blue line.
But even with the Panthers’ season all but over — one more Florida regulation loss, Columbus getting three points, or one of Ottawa, Detroit or Philadelphia getting five points mathematically eliminates the Panthers from playoff contention — Jones isn’t planning to slow down over the final two weeks of the regular season. Nor are his teammates.
“We’re gonna fight to the end no matter what,” Jones said. “We’re going to keep the culture alive. I came in during the second Cup, but they’ve started this three, four years ago. Everyone’s playing through things, and even when we’re not in it, we’re going to win together and lose together.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2026 at 10:15 AM.
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