Toronto Maple Leafs Pre-Christmas Injury Report and Update

The Toronto Maple Leafs are having an absolutely fantastic season to date.

The Toronto Maple Leafs got off to a bit of a rocky start, losing to several terrible teams (Montreal, Anaheim, San Jose, Arizona) and causing quite the panic.

Since then, they’ve rebounded nicely, and they’ve done it while suffering a nearly comical amount to injuries, especially to their goalies and defensemen.

So far this year, the Leafs have seen both Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov miss significant time with injuries.  Samsonov hurt his knee, and Murray his groin.  The Leafs were lucky to get them back, but it’s obviously a situation that will bear watching.

So far, Erik Kalgren has played 10 games, Samsonov has played 11 and Murray has played 12.  I think even the Toronto Maple Leafs biggest critics have to be impressed that a team that has split their games almost evenly between three goalies is just one point back of second overall.

Toronto Maple Leafs Injury Report

The Leafs injury list is still pretty bad.

As you can see from the chart above, the Leafs are the most impacted by injuries this season so far when you factor in both total games lost and quality of players.

Jake Muzzin will be re-evaluated in February, but it is unlikely he ever plays in the NHL again.

Morgan Rielly has recently began skating, but he isn’t expected to be ready for a couple more weeks at least.

Carl Dahlstrom, though not a regular, is also skating again.  He adds depth and ideally would play before Jordie Benn, who is recently back and who did play well when called upon.

Timothy Liljegren, the Leafs current best defensemen , narrowly avoided injury the other night and had to go for x-rays, but luckily they were negative.  Liljegren already missed time with a hernia, meaning that four of the Leafs five best defenders have missed significant time this year.

Nick Robertson, has officially changed his name to Joffrey Lupul, and will be out indefinitely with what appeared to my untrained medical eye as a “smashed shoulder” but which NHL sycophants are calling an Upper Body Injury. 

I am reasonably certain that the Toronto Maple Leafs are yet to dress their optimal lineup this season, since Timothy Liljegren missed the first ten games and half the team was done in by then.

They probably won’t technically do it, barring a Muzzin Miracle, but when Rielly and Robertson are back, if no one else goes down and both goalies are healthy, they’ll be a terrifying force that will have to move Justin Holl, a player they have been destroying the league while using on their top pairing, if they want to improve their team.

That’s a pretty good problem to have.