Toronto Maple Leafs: Impact Of Injuries Next Season

After a gruelling season, some players from the Toronto Maple Leafs will need surgery during the off-season.

After the Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated by the Boston Bruins in the first round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, three players have been confirmed to undergo surgery in order for them to be at 100% next season.

Zach Hyman had surgery to repair a torn ACL in his right knee, Travis Dermott had surgery to repair what I am assuming is a dislocated shoulder or a torn rotator cuff, and Auston Matthews had surgery to remove surgical hardware, which is expected to be from breaking his femur back in 2013.

Zach Hyman

Hyman underwent surgery for a torn ACL in his right knee on April 25th and the expected recovery time is six months. He is expected to miss training camp and the first month of the 2019-2020 season.

Hyman played with John Tavares and Mitch Marner for the most part of the season and the Leafs will need to find somebody to replace him on that line during his absence.

Trevor Moore has shown his capability to play a hard-driven game and I believe he will be a solid replacement for Hyman until he comes back. Once Hyman is fully recovered from his surgery and is ready to play, Moore would be put back onto either the third line with Nazem Kadri or the fourth line.

Travis Dermott

On February 27th, Dermott was hit from behind by Edmonton Oilers forward, Brad Malone. After sitting out of the lineup for four weeks, he returned just in time for the playoffs. The reason why I say he probably suffered a torn rotator cuff or dislocated shoulder is that while both are able to heal, they will not be the same without surgery.

The Leafs had him sit out for four weeks in order for his shoulder to heal up enough so that he could finish off the rest of the season. Now that the season is over, he will have surgery to repair his shoulder and will be expected to miss six months, like Hyman.

His replacement could be one of Rasmus Sandin, Calle Rosen or Andreas Borgman. Two of the three will probably be on the opening night roster and Dermott’s surgery could be a blessing in disguise. If both players are able to show that they are NHL ready then the Leafs might be able to move out Nikita Zaitsev during the season.

This could also be bad for the Leafs because if they are not ready then the Leafs will be without their third best defenceman (assuming Gardiner leaves via FA) for at least a month.

Auston Matthews

Matthews had surgery to remove surgical hardware on May 2nd, and the surgery is expected to not hurt his off-season training.

Matthews broke his femur back in 2013 while he was playing for USA Hockey’s under-17 team. During his career in the NHL, he has not looked like the injury has set him back in any way and removing the surgical hardware should do him no harm.

With Matthews not expected to miss any time, he will most likely be starting the season off with his former winger, William Nylander and Andreas Johnsson, if the latter remains on the team.

Overall

Even though the Toronto Maple Leafs are missing one of their top six wingers and top four defenceman, I believe that they will be fine. They were able to play without them before and will continue to do so for the first month of next season.

With Nylander being on the opening night roster this season as well, the Leafs should have no problem winning games without Hyman and Dermott in the lineup.