The Maple Leafs are running into the same nightmare again.
Just a quarter of the way through the 2026-27 season, Toronto has already seen nearly one third of its roster hit the infirmary at some point, a troubling echo of last year’s injury-riddled collapse. That 2025-26 campaign went down as the club’s worst in more than a decade, with the Leafs finishing fifth-last in the league and well outside the playoff race.
Some of the damage has already been felt, and some of it is still unfolding. Chris Tanev missed nine games earlier in the season with an upper-body injury before returning on a managed workload. John Tavares also sat out nine games because of a lower-body injury and was back in the lineup just this past weekend.
The list keeps growing. Kirill Marchenko has been out since October 26 with a lower-body injury.
Nick Blankenburg has been dealing with an upper-body injury since October 22. Marshall Rifai and Miles Wood are also on injured reserve.
Then came another rough stretch this past week. Morgan Rielly went down with a lower-body injury in Saturday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens.
Colton Sissons left Sunday’s matchup against the New Jersey Devils with a lower-body injury of his own. Jack Roslovic, meanwhile, has been one of Toronto’s top offensive producers so far, but his lower-body issue from the game against the Utah Mammoth earlier last week kept him in against the Canadiens on Saturday and then out against the Devils on Sunday.
The bigger concern is what all of this starts to resemble. Toronto has already lived through this movie once.
Last season, Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll both missed significant time, while Tanev, Brandon Carlo, William Nylander, Dakota Joshua and Auston Matthews all spent major stretches on injured reserve. That kind of attrition helped sink the Leafs’ playoff hopes, and if this season keeps following the same path, the outlook could get ugly again in a hurry.
For now, the hope is simple: the injuries clear up quickly and Toronto gets its reinforcements back sooner rather than later. If not, Maple Leafs fans may be staring at another season where the damage is done long before the calendar flips.
In Other News...
Maple Leafs Suddenly Have An Oliver Ekman-Larsson Decision To Make
Oliver Ekman-Larssons first season with the Maple Leafs has not gone the way anyone in Toronto would have hoped. Through 19 games, he has managed just one assist, and the overall picture has been one of a veteran defenseman looking a step slower than the club expected when it brought him in.
That has left the Maple Leafs with a real roster question as injuries begin to settle down and younger blueliners push for more opportunity. If Toronto decides it needs to open up those minutes, Ekman-Larsson becomes the kind of movable piece that could be on the table, even if the timing and the return remain very much in flux. [Read more 🡒]
Leafs Fans Are Already Debating A Blockbuster This Team May Need
Leafs chatter has a way of turning hypothetical ideas into full-blown debates, and this latest one is no exception. On social media, fans have been tossing around the kind of blockbuster framework that instantly grabs attention because it involves two of Torontos most recognizable names and a fresh angle on how the roster might be reshaped.
The appeal is obvious on the surface, but the practical hurdles are just as clear. Morgan Riellys no-trade clause complicates any move involving him, and William Nylander remains too important to Torontos attack to be treated lightly in any serious discussion. On the other side, there are also questions about whether Dylan Larkin would even consider a move north, which leaves this as more of a fan-driven thought experiment than a deal with real traction. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Suddenly Have A Shot At An Elite Young Scorer
The Maple Leafs are suddenly in the mix for a player who would change the look of their forward group if they can find a way to make it work. Reports from Kevin Weekes and other league sources say Flyers winger Matvei Michkov is available under unusual circumstances, and with Toronto always hunting for more high-end scoring, a young talent of that caliber is the kind of name that naturally jumps to the front of the conversation.
Michkov is in the final year of his contract, which only adds to the intrigue around what Philadelphia might do next and how aggressive interested teams can afford to be. For Toronto, the challenge is obvious: any serious pursuit would come at a steep price in assets and money, but the payoff would be landing one of the leagues most gifted young scorers at a time when that kind of upside is hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]