The Toronto Maple Leafs have more players on injured reserve than wins this season.
With three players already on the long-term injury list, Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas added one more player to that list on Tuesday.
Defenseman Jake Muzzin was placed on LTIR on Tuesday for an undisclosed amount of time. He was previously only listed on the regular I.R, but his injury and the way people were talking about it made it clear he would eventually be moved to the long-term list.
He is not the only player the Toronto Maple Leafs are adding to the injured reserve. Forward Kyle Clifford was also put on injured reserve Tuesday.
Toronto is already without goaltender Matt Murray and defensemen Timothy Liljegren and Jordie Benn. Now that list of injured players grows to five with Muzzin and Clifford. The team is learning to deal with adversity early this season. Hopefully, they can weather through it and become a better team for it.
Toronto Maple Leafs Injury Update
Matt Murray played in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ first game of the season but suffered an adductor injury. He got put on LTIR for four weeks and will return on November 8th at the earliest. Until he returns, Toronto’s relying on Ilya Samsonov and Erik Kallgren in the net.
Timothy Liljegren and Jordie Benn joined the Marlies for practice on Tuesday. Both defensemen will spend the next few games in the AHL for a conditioning stint. Liljegren is returning from hernia surgery he had in the off-season. Benn is recovering from a groin injury he sustained during the preseason.
Kyle Clifford got placed on IR, not LTIR, and will be unavailable for seven days retroactive to Monday. The next game he’ll be able to play in will be on Wednesday, November 2nd, against the Philadelphia Flyers. with him on IR,the Leafs recalled defenseman Filip Kral to give themselves a full 23-man roster.
Toronto Maple Leafs Gain Salary Cap Space
According to capfriendly.com, Toronto’s LTIR pool allows them to exceed the salary cap by $12.5 million. As of today (Wednesday), they’re exceeding by $6.92 million with a full 23-man roster. That leaves them with $5.54 million of available cap space.
The $5.54 available will shrink once Liljegren and his $1.4 million return from LTIR. Toronto will still have some cap space to work with, but a trade is likely to happen once they have a full roster again.