The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced that forward Auston Matthews will miss the next three weeks with a knee injury.
The club believes he sustained a knee sprain in Wednesday’s contest vs. the New York Rangers, but played through the pain to finish the game.
As a result of the injury, Matthews will miss the All-Star game in Florida next week. In a corresponding move, the league announced that Panthers’ forward Aleksander Barkov will take his place.
At Friday’s practice, John Tavares moved onto a line with Michael Bunting and Mitch Marner as the club prepares to take on the Ottawa Senators tonight. On the Leafs 2nd line, William Nylander, Calle Jarnkrok, and Pontus Holmberg will see action together.
“To be honest, I’m not certain whether there was one specific incident,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters following Friday’s morning skate. “I noticed him in a little discomfort a couple of times through the game but didn’t think much of it at the time. He was still sore the next day, so they brought him in for an MRI.”
The injury comes at a tough time for Toronto as they’ll have games vs. the Sens, Capitals and Bruins as they attempt to stave off the Tampa Bay Lightning for second place in the Atlantic Division. The Lightning are currently 5pts behind the Leafs with two games in hand.
“Obviously, Auston is one of the best players in the world. The impact he makes is tremendous. We have to play to our team identity that shows our depth. Guys stepping up in various ways,” captain John Tavares said.
In 47 games this year, Matthews has 53pts (25G, 28A) to go along with 18 power play points. The 25 year old currently leads all Leafs players with 10 power play goals on the league’s 10th ranked PP (24.2%).
Photo: Azadeh Kashani. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.