The Toronto Maple Leafs have been fairly fortunate in terms of dealing with injuries, other than Auston Matthews still recovering from offseason wrist surgery at the start of the season, but the club’s depth will be tested over the next few weeks, as updates were provided after the morning skate in preparation for Tuesday night’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Scotiabank Arena.
Mitch Marner (who collided with defenseman Jake Muzzin at practice on Friday) had an MRI on Monday that revealed a shoulder injury that was more severe than expected. Head coach Sheldon Keefe says the winger will be out three-to-four weeks and Marner was placed on injured reserve.
Travis Dermott and Rasmus Sandin suffered injuries in the 6-3 loss to Winnipeg on Sunday. Dermott has a shoulder issue that is not as serious as Marner, but still bad enough to keep the blueliner out.
The news was good on Sandin, who was unable to skate to the dressing room without help after a knee-on-knee collision with Jets defenseman Neil Pionk. The young blueliner was placed on IR, but the prognosis is a return in two-to-three weeks.
"We got good news on Rasmus, better than we were expecting given that he left the arena on crutches and unable to put any weight on his on his leg." Keefe said. "He had an MRI as well and the results came back very positive in the sense of no real structural damage to his knee. (It's) just gonna take some time here for the swelling and bruising to settle down."
The Leafs are also waiting on the news regarding forward Jason Spezza and his hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety on Tuesday afternoon. Spezza connected with a knee to the head of a falling Pionk after the hit on Sandin, in which the Winnipeg blueliner received a two-game suspension.
Since it is an in-person hearing, there is a potential for a suspension of five games or more, which could be debilitating to Toronto’s offense with Marner likely out the rest of the month.
On Tuesday, the Leafs recalled forward Alex Steeves, and defensemen Kristians Rubins and Alex Biega from the AHL Marlies and demoted forward Joey Anderson. Steeves is an undrafted NCAA free agent who played at Notre Dame for three seasons before signing with the Leafs in March.
After returning from an injury suffered prior to training camp, the 21-year-old has adjusted quickly to the pro game, with 12 points (7 goals, 5 assists) in 12 games.
Rubins is a long-term developmental project that played junior hockey in Sweden and with Medicine Hat (WHL) who was signed to an AHL contract and played in the ECHL and AHL before earning an NHL deal in April 2020. The big Latvian had four points (1 goal, 3 assists) in 16 games and skated on the bottom pairing with Timothy Liljegren at the morning skate.
Jack Campbell will get the start for Toronto and Elvis Merzlikins will be between the pipes for Columbus.
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