John Chayka reveals when key Maple Leafs could return from injury

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been hit with the injury bug early this season. John Tavares, centre, and Chris Tanev, defence, are both on the injured reserve (IR), and it has certainly exposed the lack of depth at their respective positions, especially on the defensive end.

That being said, they've fared pretty well, all things considered. The Leafs are 4-2-0 since Tavares went down and are 4-3-1 since losing Tanev.

General manager John Chayka met with the media on Monday and discussed injury timelines as well as possible reinforcements on the blue line.

Tanev returns to the ice for Maple Leafs

Tanev returned to practice on Monday wearing a red no-contact jersey, but his timeline is still unknown.

"He'll get back to practice here shortly, hopefully," Chayka said on Monday. "Then he'll progress to return to play. All the diagnosis and everything we heard was really positive and optomistic."

As far as a timeline, that is still unknown.

"That would be like a crystal ball kind of thing. Our doctors are confident in the diagnosis and the treatment plan and he's responding well."

As always in Leaf-land, that diagnosis and "everything we heard" were not discussed or revealed at all, but any kind of update is better than no update, I suppose.

The media asked Chayka about Tanev's approach to the game and if that raises as concern of him getting re-injured.

"You're always worried about re-injury, but we'll get to a point where we feel really good about it. We'll test it as much as we can in practice and then it's about going out and playing."

Still no real timeline for Tavares

Chayka said Tavares is skating on his own, but there's still no timeline on his return.

"He's a pretty unique athlete, very attuned to his body and what he needs to do. He's not yet at a point where he's skating with the team. That would be kind of the next step."

This season, the 36-year-old has two goals and seven points in seven games .

Chayka gives updates on Joshua and Domi

Dakota Joshua's four-game conditioning stint with the Toronto Marlies (AHL) has come to an end, and Chayka said on Monday that he'd be up in the next "day or two". It's been two days as of Wednesday, and we have yet to get an update.

Chayka said that Max Domi is skating on his own and is going through rehabilitation, but is not fit for team activities. Domi is out indefinitely after complications following surgery in the offseason. It does feel like his future in the NHL is known, but Chayka insists that Domi will tell the media when he is ready.

"At the point that he's comfortable addressing it, he wants to address it himself, and we'll help him do that." Chayka said on Monday.

Marchenko gives update to fans at Calgary airport

Kirill Marchenko was hurt in Monday's game against the Calgary Flames, and no update has been given on his status. However, the rumour on X (Twitter) is that he bumped into a group of fans at the airport and told them he will be back in "two weeks".

Maybe that's how we get quicker injury reports out of the Maple Leafs. Send fans to follow them around the airport.

Where does Ben Danford stand amidst Toronto's need on defence?

Before the season started, it was clear that there was more work to do on the blue line for Chayka and company. While we all think they need to make at least one trade to bring in reinforcements, Chayka believes that can be internal.

"There's no doubt we need to improve our defensive play overall to reach our ultimate goals," Chayka said. "But I don't think a transaction is necessarily always the way to improve. We've seen a lot of internal improvement already. And I think defensive play is a five-man structure unit, our decision-making, puck management, forwards tracking back, coaches implementing their systems and creating more comfort with that. We've seen lots of progress organically with all of that.

"My job is always to look to improve the team if possible and we'll continue to evaluate the arket and see if there's an opportunity."

So, where does that leave highly touted prospect Ben Danford?

"I love he's in the American league, won a championship there last year, which I think gives him a lot of good runway. He's with (Marlies assistant) Mark Giordano, who's a great developer. As we think about it more broadly as an organization, especially the defence, he's a prospect that could play 10 or 15 years for us."

Okay, that's a lot of words. So, what about right now?

"For us, it's about the long term, making sure that if and when he does get called up he's ready and in position to help us win at the NHL level. Right now, he's doing a great job playing big minutes in all situations, developing and evolving in his game. I got a chance to go see him play. He was really positive with his progress."

What I take away from that extremely diplomatic answer is that he'd prefer not to call him up right now.

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