The Toronto Maple Leafs are dealing with another hit to an already shaky start, and this one lands in a spot they can’t easily replace. Colton Sissons is now week-to-week with a lower-body injury suffered Saturday against the New Jersey Devils, leaving the team thinner in the exact areas it can least afford to lose bodies.
Sissons, 33, has been one of Toronto’s more useful defensive pieces through 19 games. He has six points, only 4 PIM, an even plus/minus, 11 blocks and 38 hits. He’s also winning face-offs at nearly a 60% clip, while handling key penalty-killing work and filling the role of a true shutdown forward.
His injury adds to a growing list that already includes Marshall Rifai, Nick Blankenburg, and Kirill Marchenko, all of whom are out week-to-week. Morgan Rielly is only day-to-day and is expected back by the end of the week, but that doesn’t make the overall picture any prettier 20 games into the season.
The bigger problem is what this means for the rest of the roster. Toronto is already stretched on the blue line, and now one of its anchors is out for an unknown stretch. The team also has no money to make moves, even for a modest call-up, which leaves it with very few options to patch things up.
That’s why the pressure is starting to build around the roster as a whole. The team may need to make some kind of move, whether that means moving on from veterans like Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Dakota Joshua or finding a way for someone to take on Max Domi’s contract. Any opening they can create, any fit they can improve, could matter.
And with Auston Matthews watching all of this unfold, the margin for optimism is shrinking fast. If Toronto wants to give him reason to believe this group can be more than last season’s results with a fresh coat of paint, it has to get healthy and start putting a roster on the ice that can actually stay there and contribute. Until then, it’s hard to see a path that doesn’t lead to a very long season.
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 🡒]