Dave Litman
The Toronto Maple Leafs were expected to be busy this week on the NHL news cycle, potentially with some names on their blueline. But this announcement wasn’t necessarily expected: The team has confirmed that Chris Tanev has undergone core muscle surgery and is done for the season.
The team says that Tanev is expected to be fully recovered in time for training camp come September.
This news ends weeks of speculation as to what Tanev’s status was with his latest injury. There was talk of the player considering surgery as far back as three months ago in early December.
The 36-year-old wsa taken off the ice on a stretcher during a game on November 1st after taking an awkward hit from Philadelphia Flyers forward Matvei Michkov. He’s been suffering ever since. After sitting out all of November and most of December, he came back just after Christmas and played three games, before going on the shelf once again.
Tanev’s season ends having played just 11 games. He registered two assists and a plus/minus rating of +8. His absence was a big factor in the deterioration of the Leafs’ defensive efforts this season.
He arrived in his hometown of Toronto at the trade deadline in 2024, and was the team’s most important blueliner last season. He has four more years to run on a six-year, $4.5M AAV deal he signed with the Leafs just months after they acquired him.
Tanev’s season-ending injury provides the team with the option of $4.5M of extra cap space, meaning they’ll have room to potentially take on some extra salary in trades to help get some extra draft picks in return.
Tanev’s play has always led to injury concerns
The freak accident that led to this wasn’t from a blocked shot. But injuries have always been a concern for Tanev with his kamikaze, shot-blocking style of play. He’s thrown his body in front of more blasts than most.
Tanev blocked 189 shots last season. Overall, in 878 career games, across 16 seasons, he’s registered an astounding 1,856 blocks. And that’s just the regular season. In 73 playoff games, he threw his body into even more harm’s way, adding another 212 blocked shots. Absorbing over 2,000 shots of frozen rubber is a lot of pounding, even for a 6’3″, 200-pounder.
As for the rest of the Leafs’ blueline, it could look a lot different a couple of days from now. Names from Oliver Ekman-Larsson down to Simon Benoit could be moved by Friday’s 3pm ET trade deadline.
