Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews to miss three weeks with knee sprain

The Toronto Maple Leafs announced Friday that superstar forward Auston Matthews will miss a minimum of three weeks due to a knee sprain that he suffered in Wednesday’s 3-2 overtime victory over the New York Rangers.

Matthews logged 21:53 of ice time and had four shots and three blocked shots that game, and he also held a faceoff percentage of 56.2% that night. This season, Matthews has recorded 53 points (25 goals, 28 assists) in 47 games. He also has 10 power play goals and 18 power play points on the year. He currently ranks third in points for the Maple Leafs, trailing Mitch Marner and William Nylander. Matthews’ injury timeline will put him out of the 2023 NHL All-Star Weekend in Florida which is scheduled for Feb. 3-4. With Matthews now sidelined with an injury, Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov was named as an Atlantic Division replacement at the All-Star Weekend.

Matthews, 2016 first-overall pick is coming off a monstrous season that saw him register 60 goals and 46 assists for 106 points in 73 games. He also picked up 16 powe rplay goals and 29 power play points throughout the 2021-22 campaign. Matthews became the first United States-born player in National Hockey League history to score 60 goals in a season and the first player since Tampa Bay Lightning’s Steven Stamkos (2011-12) to hit that feat. Matthews was named the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy winner for leading the league in goals and took home the Hart Trophy as MVP. Matthews is currently in the second to last year of his five-year, $58 million contract he signed in 2019. The Maple Leafs will play Friday against the Ottawa Senators without Matthews in the lineup.

Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discussed Matthews’ injury on Daily Faceoff Live today.

Tyler Yaremchuk: We got some big hockey news this morning and that’s Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs will be out a minimum of three weeks to recover from a knee injury. A couple of notes came out from head coach Sheldon Keefe today saying they aren’t sure what incident or if there was a specific incident that lead to this. He also stated that it is unrelated to past injuries as well. Still, Frank, that’s concerning for Matthews.

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, I think the concerning word there is ‘minimum’ of three weeks. That’s the thing if you’re going to have an injury that’s going to take you out for any period of time as an NHL player you want it to be right now because you miss the All-Star Game, which he was replaced by Florida Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov. So that’s an easy substitution for Team Atlantic. But when you think of Matthews and the season that has unfolded to this point, I’ve said a couple of items were kind of looking for an explanation for how his game could have such a significant drop-off. I understand that his game has been so complete he’s one of the league leaders in blocked shots among forwards and he’s really playing the full 200-foot game, I’d argue a Selke candidate-like season.

Frank Seravalli: But still, the drop off in goals from hitting 60 to now on pace for 44 you kind of look for an explanation of ‘what’s going on there’. What’s interesting is that this is not related to any previous injuries so the idea of a nagging injury that he said a couple of weeks kind of just caught up to him, well this isn’t that, but what the hope is if you’re a Maple Leafs’ fan is he now has additional time to now rest whatever that nagging injury was as well. So the player you can hope to get on the other side of the by week which for the Leafs comes on the back end of the All-Star Break and hopefully when you get Matthews back he’s back scoring at that 50-55 goal pace, whatever it is that makes him such a special player in this league. To this point, he’s just been missing something, a little bit of swagger or juice or confidence. I think there was this air around him last year that he was an absolute assassin where you went into games and he was so chill knowing he was going to score and I think we’re kind of waiting for that this season.