Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk skated before practice Monday for the first time since suffering a lower-body injury during last month's 4 Nations Face-Off.

Tkachuk has missed 16 games and is on long-term injured reserve. Coach Paul Maurice said Tkachuk is expected to miss the rest of the regular season, but the Panthers remain optimistic he'll be ready for the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Whether he's available for Game 1 of the opening series is still in question, however.

"That's where we're still shooting for. Depending on when those games get scheduled, it may have an impact on him," Maurice said.

Tkachuk skated for around 45 minutes on Monday. Maurice called it "touching pucks" without any conditioning component because Tkachuk isn't ready in his recovery quite yet.

"He'll probably just get out in the ice and move some pucks around for a few more days, probably another week or so. And then hopefully we can get to a point that he can start driving," he said. "You can do off-ice things to try to mitigate some of the conditioning losses, but he's going to have to get into some significant skates here, and I think we're a ways from that."

Maurice said Tkachuk will travel with the Panthers on their upcoming four-game road trip that begins in Montreal on Tuesday. He'll continue skating, and at some point, there will be a changeover from working with the trainers to working with the coaches.

An integral part of the Panthers' Stanley Cup championship run last season, Tkachuk, 27, has 22 goals and 35 assists in 52 games this season, skating to a minus-3.

Tkachuk helped lead Team USA to the tournament final of the 4 Nations Face-Off but was limited to 6:47 in ice time during the United States' 3-2 loss in overtime against Canada due to what was believed to be a groin injury.

The Panthers are in third place in the Atlantic Division with 91 points in 73 games. Based on current projections, they're expected to face either the Toronto Maple Leafs or Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round.