The Toronto Maple Leafs have managed to navigate through a ton of injury troubles so far throughout the 2024-25 season, and if there’s one thing they could use more of heading into the new year, it’s a little bit of luck to help get their roster back to full health.
The list of injury troubles has been frighteningly long for the Leafs. It all started in the summer with the back and forth with Jani Hakanpaa’s contract. Fraser Minten suffered an injury training camp, which was compounded by Joseph Woll being unavailable for opening night. Calle Jarnkrok underwent groin surgery and has still yet to play a game this season
Auston Matthews missed nine games, David Kampf missed 12, and Bobby McMann was unavailable for a few weeks. Max Pacioretty missed almost a month and currently, with early team-MVP candidate Anthony Stolarz being shelved for roughly two months, head coach Craig Berube has done an admirable job to construct every-changing lineups, while continuing to set the pace of success in the Eastern Conference.
While the ‘next man up’ mentality has worked for the Maple Leafs throughout the first half of the season, there’s no doubt Berube and company will need to ensure to manage workloads properly, as the only thing that should matter, is getting the 1-A roster healthy in time for a long Stanley Cup Playoff run. Health is wealth, and right now Toronto’s nowhere near when it will need to be.
The two biggest areas of focus should be on getting Stolarz’s lower-body back to 100 percent and figuring out the proper load management Matthews is going to need throughout the next 40-45 games. Matt Murray and Joseph Woll are going to be tasked with covering the crease for the time being. In the interim, it’s on Berube to ensure he’s not pushing Matthews to the point he needs to take an extended period of time off, considering the Maple Leafs’ captain isn’t feeling 100%.
“It’s tough. He’s fighting through it, and he’s doing a pretty good job out there on the ice,” Berube said via Sportsnet’s Luke Fox on December 20. “He’s producing and playing hard and working, and we just gotta manage it. It’ll get better. We just gotta manage it. And that’s why he’s off the ice today.”
Maintenance days, off days, and everything other kind of day in between, the Maple Leafs’ biggest focus for the new year needs to be figuring out solutions to their health problems. It’s on every single team’s to-do list, but there’s no doubt the injury bug has hit the Leafs much harder than most teams this season.
Ideally, the Maple Leafs get their 1-A roster healthy for mid-March. This allows for any trade-deadline acquisition, and the rest of the lineup to build some chemistry, as the lines could look a little bit different from what they do now. Good health and strong chemistry are two elements of success.
If Berube can effectively manage workloads and Toronto gets a little bit of luck holding off the injury bug, it’s going to be a big year for the Maple Leafs. If they manage to head into the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a healthy roster, it’s going to be bad news for the rest of the Eastern Conference.
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