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Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> captain Victor Hedman<\/a> says he stepped away from the team this year for mental health reasons. <\/p>\n Hedman released a statement through Tampa\u2019s social media Tuesday morning, saying stepping away \u201cwas not an easy decision, but it was the right one.\u201d The veteran blueliner also said he was \u201cin a much better place today.\u201d<\/p>\n Hedman last played on March 19 and missed the entirety of the Lightning\u2019s first-round series against the Canadiens, which Montreal won in six games. Hedman skated with the team\u2019s scratches ahead of Game 7 on Sunday but head coach Jon Cooper confirmed before puck drop that he would not yet be returning to game action.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here is Hedman\u2019s full statement:<\/p>\n I\u2019ve spent most of my life in this game, and nearly all of my career with this organization. Wearing this jersey – and serving as captain – is the greatest responsibility of my professional life.<\/i><\/p>\n That 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><\/p>\n I\u2019ve always believed that being a leader means doing what\u2019s best for the team. In 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.<\/i><\/p>\n I\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.<\/i><\/p>\n This is something that exists in our game more than people see. If this moment helps make it\u00a0easier\u00a0for others to take care of themselves when they need to, that matters.<\/i><\/p>\n I\u2019m proud of this team, and I look forward to what\u2019s ahead.<\/i><\/p>\n The 35-year-old\u00a0blueliner\u00a0had one goal and 16 assists in 33 games in 2025-26. He has spent his entire 17-year NHL career with the Bolts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tampa Bay Lightning captain Victor Hedman says he stepped away from the team this year for mental health reasons. Hedman released a statement through Tampa\u2019s social media Tuesday morning, saying stepping away \u201cwas not an easy decision, but it was the right one.\u201d The veteran blueliner also said he was \u201cin a much better place … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Hedman-stepped-away-from-Lightning-for-mental-health-reasons-\u2013.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29784,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29782\/revisions\/29784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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