Toronto Maple Leafs superstar center Auston Matthews took the ice for the club's optional morning skate on Saturday. But when will he return to game action? We now know that Max Pacioretty will be unavailable to the Toronto Maple Leafs for the club's next seven games due to a lower-body injury he sustained earlier this month. The Leafs announced Tuesday that they had moved David Kampf to injured reserve and called up Fraser Minten. The Leafs didn't have sufficient cap space to do that without another corresponding move to free up salary cap space. According to PuckPedia.com [https://x.com/PuckPedia/status/1859004950602485859], the Leafs moved Max Pacioretty to the team's long-term injured reserve list to do that. Under LTIR rules, a player is unavailable to return until he misses 10 games and 24 since the last time they played. That would mark the Dec. 7 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins as Pacioretty's earliest possible return to the lineup. Pacioretty was injured against the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 9. He collided with Montreal Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson and instantly grabbed the back of his left leg. The 35-year-old has not been seen skating and the player may miss more than the time he has been away, although Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving expressed optimism that Pacioretty's injury was as serious as feared, Pacioretty signed a one-year, $873,770 with Toronto on Oct. 7 after joining the team on a professional tryout for training camp. He has two goals, four assists, and is averaging 12:11 of ice time through his first 13 games with the Maple Leafs.
