Out since March 14 with a hand injury, the Maple Leafs hope to have Jarnkrok back in the lineup for Game 1 of the playoffs, but whether he will recover in time is unclear.
Out since March 14 with a hand injury, the Maple Leafs hope to have Jarnkrok back in the lineup for Game 1 of the playoffs, but whether he will recover in time is unclear.
When he stepped out on the ice before practice began on Monday, Calle Jarnkrok was greeted by teammate William Nylander to much delight.
"Good to see you out here!" Nylander shouted.
Jarnkrok, who has been out of the lineup since March 14 with a hand injury, skated on his own with skills staff before joining the club for the penalty-kill portion of the team's main practice session.
"Today was a progress for him," Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said of Jarnkrok. "He's not ready to play yet at this point and hasn't had a full practice with us yet. But it's positive to see him out there and be a little more involved with the different drills before practice began."
Jarnkrok has been caught with some bad luck in 2024. Having just returned for 12 days after a six-week absence due to a broken knuckle, the 32-year-old suffered another hand injury against the Philadelphia Flyers. Without getting through a full practice yet and the team won't have any scheduled until after their regular season concludes on Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Jarnkrok has been virtually rule out for any more regular season action.
And it sounds like Game 1 isn't a certainty for the Swedish forward, either.
"He's more in a day-to-day situation," Keefe said of Jarnkrok's status. "Unfortunately, we're running out of schedule here, but we'll just have to see where he is. He's gonna be traveling with us."
Activating Jarnkrok before the regular season was going to prove to be difficult. Currently on the team's long-term injured reserve list, the Leafs would have had to send down both of Matthew Knies and Nick Robertson down the Marlies. Otherwise, someone would have had to be placed on waivers to accommodate Jarnkrok's $2.1 million salary cap hit (The Leafs only have $547,499 in space according to PuckPedia.com).
Given that the club will already be without Bobby McMann (lower-body) and Max Domi (undisclosed) for the remainder of the regular season, activating Jarnkrok for one game would create a further shortafe of bodies. Sure, the leafs could dress more defensemen (they have nine on their roster right now), but if Jarnkrok's not ready, he's not ready.
Without McMann and Domi, the Leafs lined up with a bottom-six that looked much thinner than it looked on Saturday. Jarnkrok's return would certainly help in that regard. In 52 games this season, the 32-year-old has 10 goals and 11 assists.
"I don't worry about it too much," keefe said "Obviously, in the case of injured players, you'd like to have them out and get them back up and running again.
"But in terms of having things set, like I've talked about, we've worked through a lot of different things. Our guys are comfortable, whatever the situation is. And in fact, I believe we, as a group, respond well when things move around. So I'm not concerned about that in that sense. Right now, it's more about managing our group and finishing up the schedule."
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