Jarnkrok blocked a shot from Auston Matthews during practice on Wednesday but appears to have avoided serious injury.
Jarnkrok blocked a shot from Auston Matthews during practice on Wednesday but appears to have avoided serious injury.
The Toronto Maple Leafs had a bit of a scare at practice on Wednesday when Calle Jarnkrok was on the receiving end of an Auston Matthews shot that hit him square in the leg.
As a result, Jarnkrok did not participate in the team's final preparation before their afternoon game against the Chicago Blackhawks, but it appears the Swedish forward avoided serious injury.
"We didn’t love how it was looking and feeling today so we sent him for some imaging, Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe explained following Thursday's practice. "The news has been positive here so far. He’ll come with us on the trip and he’ll be a game-time decision"
The Maple Leafs prepared for the fact that Jarnkrok may have to miss Friday's game at a minimum. The club will take on the Pittsburgh Penguins the following day at PPG Paints Arena. Noah Gregor moved up to the third line to skate with Nick Robertson and Max Domi, while Ryan Reaves moved up to the fourth line to skate with Bobby McMann and David Kampf.
Robertson also moved up to the club's second power-play unit in place of Jarnkrok.
Reaves last played on Nov. 10 and logged just 4:43 of ice time in a Maple Leafs' 5-4 shootout win against the Calgary Flames.
"We haven't played a lot of games so he hasn't missed a ton of game action," Keefe said of Reaves.
Reaves only missed three games as the schedule saw a lot of off days due to their week-long sojourn in Stockholm, Sweden, for the 2023 NHL Global Series.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2E5uT4CFb8[/embed]
If Jarnkrok isn't able to play, it's likely that Conor Timmins, who could return to the lineup after missing all season with a lower-body injury, may have to wait a bit as the Leafs deal with a salary cap crunch.
Per Puckpedia.com, the Leafs only have approximately $60,000 in cap space and don't have enough money to accommodate Timmins' $1.1 million cap hit with the removal of just one player on the roster (Simon Benoit, the player he'd most likely replace in the lineup).
UPDATE: Shortly after publishing, the Maple Leafs announced that played defenseman John Klingberg on long-term injured reserve and called up Alex Steeves.
In his second season with the Maple Leafs, Calle Jarnkrok has four goals and five assists in 17 games. He has helped stabilize a third line when he was moved down to skate alongside Domi, who moved to the center position on Nov. 5.
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