The Maple Leafs got a timely boost Thursday morning, and it came from a familiar face. Jake McCabe was back at practice after leaving Tuesday’s game looking badly cut up, and all signs point to him being ready to rejoin the lineup against the Rangers.
Toronto has spent plenty of time dealing with injuries already this season. Max Domi is out for the long-haul, Dakota Joshua is nowhere to be seen, John Tavares and Chris Tanev could both be sidelined for a few weeks, and McCabe himself exited Tuesday’s game in rough shape. With Tavares and Tanev still not close to returning, getting McCabe back is a needed break for a team that has been forced to shuffle hard just to stay afloat.
At practice, McCabe was skating on the first pair alongside Darren Raddysh, a strong sign that the injury won’t keep him out any longer than Tuesday night. He was still sporting a serious shiner, though, which made the damage look even worse than it turned out to be. The good news is that there was no orbital injury involved - just a slice, unpleasant as that surely was.
McCabe, 32, has yet to put up a point in 11 games this season, but his value has shown up in the harder stuff: 21 blocks and 15 hits. With Tanev out, Toronto needs that kind of steady, defensive-minded presence even more. It also takes some pressure off others, including Troy Stecher, who won’t have to be leaned on for 26 minutes on Thursday.
The timing matters because the Rangers have come out flying. They’re 7-3-1, sitting second in the Metropolitan, and Alexis Lafrenière is finally delivering the breakout season people have been waiting for. They’ve done it, too, without Igor Shesterkin, who is out for the rest of the season after awkwardly going down following a save and later requiring surgery.
McCabe’s return should help Toronto’s effort to slow that attack, including Lafrenière, while another matchup to watch is how Albert Smits handles the Maple Leafs and first overall pick Gavin McKenna. It’s another chapter in the 2026 top picks storyline, and with McKenna already getting the better of Ivar Stenberg, Smits is next in line. Both players have been excellent in their first NHL seasons, and this could be the start of something that lasts a long time.
For the Maple Leafs, though, the headline is simpler than all that: McCabe is back, and after the scare on Tuesday, Toronto badly needed that to be the case.
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