The Toronto Maple Leafs start training camp officially tomorrow.
Yesterday it came out that the Toronto Maple Leafs would begin training camp without Pierre Engvall.
Chris Johnston then followed with the news that Timothy Liljegren would miss training camp.
Off to a bad start!
Toronto Maple Leafs Training Camp Injuries
Any team is going to bring 50 or 60 guys to training camp, so it’s inevitable that a couple of them would be nursing training injuries from the summer.
NEWS: Timothy Liljegren will miss #leafs training camp with an injury, per sources. The team isn't commenting on the situation today but says it will address Liljegren's status in more detail when camp opens tomorrow.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) September 20, 2022
That these are two regulars on the roster is a bit of bad news, but it’s most likely nothing that serious. And if it is, the Leafs are incredibly deep and won’t have a bit of trouble icing a full lineup.
Engvall and Liljegren are two of the Leafs most interesting players. Both are coming off of years where they were statistically dominant, and thus we are really looking forward to seeing how they fare this season.
Engvall was teamed with David Kampf last year, played some of the toughest minutes in hockey and posted great numbers. He appears to have even more to give and is now an intriguing player.
Liljegren on the other hand was the Toronto Maple Leafs best defenseman last season. He led the Leafs in virtually all on-ice categories *meaning how the Leafs did when he was on the ice in terms of puck possession, shot, scoring chances and goal percentages.
The Leafs lack of action since signing Calle Jarnkrok over a month ago has seemed suspicious, but as I speculated, they likely knew their cap issues would be taken care of by injuries.
Additionally, there is still Jake Muzzin. It will be interesting to see if he reports to camp healthy or not. He was injured twice last season and missed 35 games. He remains on the roster only because of his no-trade clause, and the Leafs still need to not only sign Rasmus Sandin, but they must also find room for him to play.
A Muzzin injury would solve the problem of a no-movement clause.
As to Engvall and Liljegren, it’s unfortunate that they are injured, but it will give the Leafs a chance to try out other players on their roster, and that can only be a good thing for the team’s depth moving forward.
Hopefully neither injury is serious, but missing training camp often proves to be a precursor to a disappointing season, so it’s hard to see this as good news, even if we are trying extra hard to find a silver lining.