Auston Matthews’ 2024-25 season was already hard to ignore. The Toronto Maple Leafs captain’s production fell off a cliff, and now a few comments from the chiropractor who has been working with him this summer have added a new layer to the mystery.
Arizona-based chiropractor Shawn Robek recently appeared in an Instagram post with Matthews, which sparked speculation that the issue might be tied to Matthews’ lower back. Robek later spoke to TSN 1050’s “First Up” and clarified what he has actually been handling: Matthews’ knee rehab after the MCL injury he suffered on a hit from Radko Gudas last March.
“I’m helping take care of his knee. And so I was part of the team in addressing the soft tissue structures associated with that injury… It’s my job to clean up those tissues, make sure the joints are moving well, and teach him some intentional corrective exercise so we can make sure the joints are functioning optimally.”
Robek also said Matthews’ lower back was not a concern “this summer.” That does add one more piece to the offseason picture, but it still does not identify the undisclosed injury Matthews was dealing with during the 2024-25 season.
That injury was never publicly named, even though it was obvious something was off. Matthews missed games and even traveled to Germany to see a specialist. The Leafs kept the details under wraps throughout the season.
Robek’s connection to Matthews isn’t new, either. When he posted the two together on Instagram, he said it had been a pleasure having the Leafs captain in his office during the summers.
The relationship is clearly established, and Robek would know Matthews’ history. Still, his comments should be read as context, not confirmation of what bothered Matthews last season.
The numbers show just how severe the drop was. Matthews went from 69 goals in 2023-24 to 33 in 2024-25. He also played 81 games one season and 67 the next, but the missed time alone doesn’t explain the plunge.
The bigger clues are in the way he was shooting. Matthews dropped from 4.56 shots per game to 3.9, and his shooting percentage slid from 18.7 percent to 12.6 percent. He also went from 20 power-play goals to 10 and from 48 five-on-five goals to 21.
Gary Roberts Performance notes that core strength matters for shooting, passing, and skating. In that sense, any injury that affects movement or force generation can have a real impact on a scorer like Matthews, even if it doesn’t tell us exactly what he was battling.
As the source puts it, “Your core is arguably the most important attribute you can develop as a hockey player. It's responsible for shooting, passing, protecting the puck from opponents, and skating.”
Robek’s comments don’t prove one injury explains everything about Matthews’ decline. But they do add useful context to a season that was clearly affected by an undisclosed issue.
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