NHL: Toronto Maple Leafs at Minnesota Wild - Image Source: Imagn
Auston Matthews has been out since Nov. 3, and he may not return any time soon. The Toronto Maple Leafs captain has no timetable or even diagnosis and has been "week-to-week" for a long time. He's nearing eligibility for the long-term Injured Reserve, something one hockey analyst believes could be important.
Aaron Korolnek said (11:00) on First Up:
"At this point here, you leave the door open for every type of speculation. But I think in Matthews case, I think he's three games away from being eligible for LTIR.
"And I think it has come this far with the injury that they might as well say, okay, let's stretch this out of the three games so that we could actually use the LTIR space later in the season to go and do whatever move that we want."
