Maple Leafs’ Jake McCabe leaves game with upper-body injury

The Toronto Maple Leafs announced that defenseman Jake McCabe will not return to Saturday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning due to an upper-body injury.

Maple Leafs D Jake McCabe (upper body) will not return to tonight’s game.

— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) December 1, 2024

McCabe suffered the injury midway through the second period of the game, as a shot from Lightning defenseman Nick Perbix went up high and hit him in the side of the head, right underneath his helmet. He fell to the ice, with the play blowing dead to get him off the ice, and he went to the dressing room and did not return, with the Leafs confirming as such in the third period. He leaves the game with one shot and two hits in 11:27 of ice time, with the Leafs winning the game 5-3.

There is currently no confirmation on the severity of the injury, or how long McCabe is expected to be out of the lineup with the injury. More details will likely be revealed either after Saturday’s game, or at some point after the Leafs return to Toronto before Monday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks.

With McCabe out, the Leafs have replaced him with Simon Benoit alongside Chris Tanev on their shutdown pair. The duo has 18:06 of ice time together this season, keeping the goals even at 1-1 and a 33.01% expected goal share in those minutes.

The injury spoils a milestone night for McCabe, as he was playing in his 600th career NHL game. He has just 5 assists in 23 games this season, which has him currently on pace to have his lowest-scoring season since his rookie season with the Buffalo Sabres in 2015-16.

Both Jani Hakanpaa and Philippe Myers were healthy scratches on the blue line for the Leafs on Saturday, so one of those two will likely draw into the lineup should McCabe miss some time. Hakanpaa has played just two games so far this season, going pointless in both, while Myers has gone pointless in one game with the Leafs. Both have also played a respective two and three games with the Leafs AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, while on conditioning stints, going pointless in those games as well.

The Leafs will look to continue this stretch of 8 wins in their last 10 games when they host the Blackhawks on Monday at 7:30 p.m. EST. Toronto currently sits in second place in the Atlantic Division with a 14-7-2 record.