Report: Auston Matthews re-aggravates existing injury, out for ...

Hearing that Auston Matthews won't be available to the #leafs tonight after reaggravating the injury that kept him out of games in November. He's considered questionable for Monday's game.

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) December 21, 2024

Matthews took a big hit from Tage Thompson, a dirty cross-check to the ribs from Dennis Gilbert, and a slash to the wrist from Jason Zucker in last night’s 6-3 win over Buffalo, but to pretend he was looking anywhere near 100% before those incidents would also require a lot of naive thinking. The usual explosiveness to his game and the level of physical engagement has clearly been muted. Craig Berube explicitly acknowledged Matthews was continuing to battle through the injury before the matchup in Buffalo after Matthews missed the morning skate:

“It is tough. He is fighting through it. He is doing a pretty good job on the ice. He is producing, playing hard, and working. He has to manage it, and we have to manage it. It will get better. We have to manage it, which is why he is off the ice today.”

– Craig Berube on Matthews’ injury situation

We’re not here to irresponsibly speculate on the exact nature of the injury, but reading between the lines, whatever the injury is, Matthews appears to be battling something that medical professionals don’t think will be a threat to his long-term well-being to play through (in terms of the risk of it worsening), but it is also something that won’t fully resolve without either extensive rest and rehab or some kind of procedure first.

It leaves the Leafs in a tough position. Is there an amount of time they can shut him down for in the next few weeks or months that provides a reasonable prospect of Matthews fully healing in time for the playoffs? If there is, we’re probably reaching the point where they need to do it with an eye toward the postseason as the first priority while utilizing the LTIR space to add some roster flexibility (and depending on how long we’re talking, possibly the ability to freely add to their team).

If it’s unlikely to fully resolve during the season (or would require shutting down his season in order to fully address it), is the only hope to manage it as best they can until the offseason, mixing in extra periods of rest where the schedule sets up for it — such as the two games before the upcoming holiday break — while knowing a less-than-100% Matthews is better than no Matthews at all? Despite obviously playing through something, Matthews still has six goals and 12 points in his 12 games since his return, although he’s a minus-four in those appearances.

It’s also hard not to get a few months ahead of yourself and think about the touchy decision around the Four Nations participation as well.

Needless to say, this is not how anyone would’ve drawn up the first few months of Matthews’ captaincy era. Injuries suck for anybody and any player, and they certainly suck when it takes one of the best players on the planet off the ice in the biggest market in hockey. It’s a total bummer.

The short-term ramifications for the Leafs involve possibly needing to break up a Bobby McMann – Max Domi – Nick Robertson third line that was piling up offense in the last three games, making the Leafs the deepest they’ve looked all season up front. The only alternative in order to keep L3 together is to move John Tavares between Mitch Marner and Matthew Knies and plug in a David Kampf or Pontus Holmberg at center with William Nylander and Max Pacioretty.

Alternatively, Kampf will move up to 3C, Domi will elevate into the top six, and Connor Dewar will enter the lineup on the fourth line. We’ll see what Craig Berube has in store in the line rushes for warmups before the game versus the Islanders on HNIC.