Florida Panthers defenceman MacKenzie Weegar said in a text to TSN's Dan Robertson he hates seeing what happened to injured Montreal Canadiens forward Paul Byron and hopes he's back on the ice soon. 

Here is the full text message from Weegar following Tuesday's fight. 

"Yeah I mean it’s pretty simple I honestly just simply asked him if he wanted to own up to the hit and he didn’t hesitate. If he had said no then I would’ve moved on, it wasn’t like I was going to keep on coming after him. I wasn’t going into the game thinking about this situation. I hate seeing what happened just as much as any other person. I feel bad of course and I didn’t go into the fight wanting to do that. He’s a great hockey player and I have lots of respect for him stepping up and I hope to see him back in the game quickly."

The Canadiens announced that Byron won't make the trip to Columbus when the team takes on the Blue Jackets on Thursday night. 

He left Tuesday's game against the Panthers in the first period and did not return.

Byron dropped to the ice after Weegar landed an upper-cut to his face and struggled to keep his balance while being escorted off the ice by an official and team trainer. He did not return to the game, suffering what the team called an upper-body injury.

Byron was suspended three games for charging Weegar into the glass when the two teams last met at the Bell Centre in January.

“It’s something that happened that I would have preferred didn’t happen,” Canadiens head coach Claude Julien said of the fight after the game.

Byron had 15 goals and 15 assists in 53 games before Tuesday's game.