There is a little less mystery surrounding John Klingberg's injury.
The Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman was placed on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) last week with has since been confirmed by team GM Brad Treliving to be a hip injury.
The defenseman isn't eligible to return until Dec. 12 at the earliest after being placed on LTIR, but the question now is will the Swedish defenseman require surgery and perhaps be shut down for the remainder of the season.
"I anticipate we’ll have clarity this week," Klingberg said. "It has certainly limited him."
Klingberg has been meeting with hip specialists in New York to determine the defenseman's recovery path.
"We went through some meetings last week to see if this is a situation where there’s a surgical intervention or not," Treliving said.
Klingberg was one of several newcomers Treliving signed in the days following his hiring as Maple Leafs GM. The Swedish defenseman has twice had hip surgery before but it wasn't an issue when the team signed the 31-year-old to a one-year, $4.15 million contract.
Treliving said the "event" in which Klingberg's injury presented itself took place during the team's first road trip in Florida in October.
"We wanted him to come in and help us moving pucks generating some offense helping us get out of our own," Treliving said. "Injuries happen. And that's part of it. That's the unfortunate part of the game. We'll see where he’s at hopefully by the end of this week and go from there."
The Maple Leafs benefited in the short term by placing all of Klingberg's salary cap hit on LTIR. They were able to activate Conor Timmins from LTIR and carry the maximum allowable 23 players on their active roster for their most recent two-game road trip through Chicago and Pittsburgh.
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