The Toronto Maple Leafs can’t catch a break right now.
After the Toronto Maple Leafs lost Adam Brooks to the Montreal Canadiens on waivers this week, their depth has been continued to be weakened by some injury concerns.
We all knew that Auston Matthews had wrist surgery this summer, but we all thought he’d return for opening night. However, not only will he miss the team’s first game, but the Leafs will be without him for their first three.
That’s concerning news for the team, but hopefully these will be the only three games he misses for sometime and is healthy for the rest of the season. Matthews will need to be active for a large percentage of games this year if he has any chance at reclaiming his Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy this season.
Not only will Matthews be missing action but Ilya Mikheyev will be out for eight weeks with a broken thumb. This was supposed to be a huge year for him, but he unfortunately won’t be in the lineup until December at this point.
We all thought the team’s left-side was weak to begin with, but now that Mikheyev is out for that timeframe, Nick Ritchie, Michael Bunting, Alex Kerfoot and potentially Nick Robertson will have to step up in Mikheyev’s absence.
More Toronto Maple Leafs Injury News
Right when you thought the injury bug couldn’t get any worse ahead of the team’s opening game, Mitch Marner was forced to leave practice on Tuesday.
Concerning moment for the Leafs at practice: Mitch Marner forced to depart not long after a collision with Wayne Simmonds.
— Jonas Siegel (@jonassiegel) October 12, 2021
As reported by Jonas Siegel, in the tweet above, Marner left practice after a collision with Wayne Simmonds. It’s unknown at whether or not Marner will miss opening night because of this injury, but if he does, the team’s roster is going to look a lot different than normal.
Putting John Tavares beside William Nylander and Nick Ritchie would be a fine first line for any team, but after that things get scary. When everyone is healthy, the team’s depth isn’t in question, but with Auston Matthews, Ilya Mikheyev and potentially Mitch Marner all out of the lineup, the team will need put that depth to the test immediately.
Mike Amadio has made the team, Pierre Engvall will have a golden opportunity it didn’t seem he was going to get, and the team can always call on Nick Robertson or Josh Ho-Sang if necessary. This is fine, but when the injured players are Marner or Matthews, there’s no amount of depth that can supplement their level of talent.
In order to create depth, one option would be to start William Nylander as the second line centre, but it’s unsure at whether or not the team wants him to play centre. Personally, I think that would be a great spot for him as he’s talented enough to play down the middle and he’s somewhat comfortable with it. However, the team does still have Alex Kerfoot or David Kampf who can fill that void instead.
Either way, this is not the news you wanted to hear as a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, so let’s hope the team can rally and find the win column, despite these injuries.