The injury troubles for the Toronto Maple Leafs on the blueline have taken another turn or two. With top defenseman Chris Tanev potentially out for the rest of the season (surgery-dependent), the Buds appeared to lose two more d-men on Wednesday night.
All in all, Ekman-Larsson has been the Leafs’ best blueliner this season. But when he went down on an otherwise innocent-looking play in the first period, it was enough to knock him out of the game with a lower-body injury. Carlo also “tweaked” something.
Leafs breathing sigh of relief with injury news on Edman-Larsson & Carlo
But while they were both in the ‘iffy’ category moving forward earlier in the day, insider Darren Dreger gave us some good news later on Thursday. He says that both OEL and Carlo may actually play in Friday’s Mitch Marner return to Toronto with the Vegas Golden Knights.
“I think the news is better than it sounded like it was headed earlier today… When (Ekman-Larsson) went down in the first period, it was like, ‘Oh no, here we go.’ … It was trending towards a higher sense of urgency for the general manager to bring in some kind of stopgap.
“But my understanding is, as the day has progressed, both men are feeling better, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them both in the lineup against the Vegas Golden Knights (Friday).”
The Leafs already struck gold once this season in bringing in a ‘stopgap’ solution on D. Troy Stecher, claimed off waivers from the Edmonton Oilers in mid-November, has turned into an indispensable part of the Toronto blueline.
But the search for help on the back end continues, nonetheless. Insider Pierre LeBrun notes that New Jersey Devils’ Dougie Hamilton has approved the Leafs as a potential trade destination. But he’s done the same with many other teams as well.
Leafs will have to shop the bargain bin for defensive help
However, the Leafs simply don’t have a stocked cupboard full of assets to outbid other teams on the trade market. Their high-end draft capital and prospects pool has been severely depleted in recent years with trade deadline deals.
What GM Brad Treliving needs to do is go out and find more bargains and under-the-radar moves, like he did with Stecher. Craig Button put it this way on TSN’s That’s Hockey today:
“You gotta go to the Dollar Store. You’re not gonna be able to shop on Fifth Avenue in New York City. You gotta go find value in different areas of the league.” He then cited the Montreal Canadiens’ bonus find of Alexandre Texier earlier this season as another example that we can add to the Stecher move by the Leafs. They both fall in the ‘Dollar Store’ category.
Wherever Treliving is doing his shopping, at least it sounds like the latest injuries on the Leafs’ defense won’t be costing him (or the players involved) an arm and a leg.
