Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas announced Friday that superstar forward Auston Matthews will miss a minimum of three weeks due to a knee sprain that he suffered in Wednesday’s 3-2 overtime victory over the New York Rangers.
Matthews logged 21:53 of ice time and had four shots and three blocked shots that game, he also held a faceoff percentage of 56.2% that night. This season, Matthews has recorded 53 points (25 goals, 28 assists) in 47 games, he also has 10 powerplay goals and 18 powerplay points on the year.
He currently ranks third in points for the Maple Leafs trailing Mitchell Marner and William Nylander. Matthews’ injury timeline will put him out of the 2023 NHL All-Star Weekend in Florida which is scheduled for Feb. 4.
With Matthews now sidelined with an injury, Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov was named his replacement at the All-Star Weekend.
The 2016 first overall pick is coming off a monstrous season that saw him register 60 goals and 46 assists for 106 points in 73 games. He also picked up 16 power-play goals and 29 power-play points throughout the 2021-12 campaign.
Matthews became the first United States-born player in NHL history to score 60 goals in a season and the first player since Tampa Bay Lightning’s Steven Stamkos to hit that feat in 2011-12. He was named the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy winner for leading the league in goals. Matthews is currently in the second to the final year of his five-year, $58 million contract he signed in 2019.
The Maple Leafs will play Friday against the Ottawa Senators without Matthews in the lineup.
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