Toronto Maple Leafs Rebound; Matthews' Quiet Playoff Challenge Ends
There's only one positive here.
Maple Leafs' Auston Matthews injury has one silver lining for Toronto originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . The Toronto Maple Leafs won't have Auston Matthews for the rest of the season.
They ruled him out for the rest of the season in an announcement on Friday after Matthews was hurt earlier in the week on a nasty-looking knee-to-knee hit delivered by Radko Gudas. It's one more insult in a season full of them for Toronto, which hasn't followed up a promising 2024-25 campaign with anything other than disappointment this time around. The absence of Matthews the rest of the way, though, has one silver lining.
The Maple Leafs only keep their 2026 first-round pick if it's in the top-five. Those were the conditions placed on the selection when it was sent to the Boston Bruins for Brandon Carlo before the 2025 trade deadline. The Leafs likely assumed they'd be picking in the back half of the first round and that that pick would be as good as gone.
Now that they're struggling like this, though, the pick is in play. The Leafs could still end up with a top-five selection. MORE: We finally know what Sidney Crosby's Olympic injury is Given that they could use an injection of fresh faces and new talent, a pick that high in a good draft could be a pivotal point for the franchise.