Maple Leafs Activate Chris Tanev Off IR

The Maple Leafs will welcome back a key veteran defenseman tonight against Vancouver.  Chris Tanev has been activated off injured reserve, according to the NHL’s media site, meaning he will be back to take on one of his former teams.

Tanev sustained a lower-body injury three weeks ago in Colorado in his sixth game of the season, receiving a week-to-week designation soon after.  At the time, the thought was that his designation could last for up to six weeks but he’ll be back in half that time.

The 36-year-old is a key shutdown defender for Toronto when he’s in the lineup.  The problem is that the oft-injured veteran has been hurt more than he has played over the last two seasons.  Tanev was limited to just 11 appearances last season with an injury that required late clearance heading into training camp this year.  He’s now missed nine of 15 games in the early going this season.

The Maple Leafs enter play tonight as the highest-scoring team in the NHL but sit outside a playoff spot thanks to being in the bottom five league-wide defensively in terms of goals allowed.  Tanev should definitely help on the defensive side of things and should also help augment a penalty kill that sits second in the league heading into play today with a 92.3% success rate.

Toronto had an active roster spot so no corresponding move needed to be made to bring Tanev onto the roster.  He will likely take the place of Dakota Mermis in the lineup, who logged less than 10 minutes in Thursday’s loss against Seattle.