Klingberg skated at practice but left within minutes as the player struggles to recover from "aggressive treatment" for an unknown injury.
Klingberg skated at practice but left within minutes as the player struggles to recover from "aggressive treatment" for an unknown injury.
STOCKHOLM — On Friday, John Klingberg expressed his hope that he would be able to return to the lineup on Sunday when the Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Minnesota Wild in Stockholm, Sweden. But that optimism was quickly dashed when the defenseman left the team's practice on Saturday within minutes of the session.
Klingberg has been ruled out for Sunday's game and Maple Leafs' head coach Sheldon Keefe admitted that there is concern that Klingberg's injury could linger for a while.
"It's certainly getting to that place," Keefe admitted. "With the time off they tried to use it with a little more aggressive treatment for him going forward. They still think some of that treatment will help him and pay off for him. It’s just taking longer for him to bounce back from it and just hasn’t been comfortable"
Klingberg played in the club's first 13 games of the regular season but was scratched for the club's 14th game with an injury. He returned for the club's 5-2 win against the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 11.
Since that time, Klingberg has undergone aggressive treatment with the hope that the days between games would help rectify the defenseman's ailment. Klingberg has had many injuries throughout his career including a pair of hip surgeries in 2015 but did not reveal specifics.
The defenseman admitted on Friday that the ailment he's dealing with has been something that's bothered him before in his career.
The Maple Leafs' next game won't be until November 24 when they visit the Chicago Blackhawks, so that would give the 31-year-old defenseman more time to recover.
But if there wasn't concern before with how effective Klingberg would be this season after he struggled in a game against the Ottawa Senators on Nov. 8 when he was on the ice for four goals against, there is certainly concern now.
What happens if Klingberg goes on long-term injured reserve?
If Klingberg's injury is worse than feared and the Leafs want to make some more cap space available, they could put the defenseman on long-term injured reserve. The only issue is because Klingberg played in that one game against the Canucks, they wouldn't be able to activate him from the lineup until Dec. 12 at the earlier. Had Klingberg not played in that game against the Canucks, they could have backdated the LTIR and had him return as soon as Dec. 9.
The Leafs may want to unlock space when Conor Timmins returns from a lower-body injury. He's unlikely to play on Sunday, according to Keefe. But his $1.1 million would have to be activated from LTIR to return to the active roster.
The Maple Leafs signed Klingberg as an unrestricted free agent to a one-year, $4.15 million deal in July.
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