The defenseman injured his neck during the team’s 4-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes and will miss a minimum of seven days retroactive to Monday.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have placed veteran defenseman Jake Muzzin on injured reserve, the team announced on Wednesday.
Muzzin was injured in the second period with a neck injury and did not return in the Maple Leafs’ 4-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Monday.
With Muzzin on injured reserve, the 33-year-old is unavailable to the Leafs for a minimum of seven days retroactive to his last appearance. The earliest he’d be eligible to return is Oct. 27 against the San Jose Sharks.
"We had an event last night and in a lot of ways he looked like himself," Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said of Muzzin. "
The veteran defenseman was checked out for a concussion and Keefe responded by saying that head injury was ruled out.
With the available roster spot, the Maple Leafs called up Filip Kral from the Marlies and he’ll likely serve as the team’s seventh defenseman for the team’s upcoming road trip.
The 22-year-old Kral has never dressed in an NHL. Earlier in the day, the Marlies signed Danny DeKeyser to a professional tryout.
Victor Mete will slot in to make his Maple Leafs debut on Thursday when the team hosts the Dallas Stars.
Instant Analysis
There was no update on Muzzin's status beyond today's game. But Mitch Marner's comments about his friend weren't reassuring.
"Obviously for him, it's just making sure that if he does come back and play this year, or whatever, just making sure he's going to do whatever he wants for the rest of his life and enjoy the time with his family and kids and whatever he wants to do," Marner said. "That's the most important thing. On the ice, it's a big missing piece."
Muzzin had two concussions last season and missed the start of training camp with back soreness.
Why no LTIR?
The Maple Leafs have the option of placing Muzzin on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) down the road should they need to make use of the veteran's $5.625 million cap hit. But they already had a lot of space made available to them after goaltender Matt Murray was placed on LTIR with an adductor injury. Should Toronto need the space, they could always move Muzzin to LTIR to free up the space.
Toronto is at the maximum allowable 50 contracts. If they wanted to make use of Muzzin's cap hit down the road, they'd have to move some contracts out before being able to add anyone new.