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Insider reveals details surrounding John Klingberg's mysterious injury and what may occur next

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Ryan Smitheram
November 20, 2023 (10:39)

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On November 10th, the Maple Leafs announced that John Klingberg would not play in their game against the Calgary Flames due to a "nagging" injury he was dealing with.

Many expected him to also miss their game Saturday night against the Vancouver Canucks so that he would be able to play in Sweden in front of his friends and family. To everyone's surprise, however, Klingberg played last Saturday night against the Canucks and looked to be in a position to play in Sweden.

Unfortunately, Klingberg missed three straight practices this past week while undergoing what the team called "aggressive" treatment on his injury. He was unable to play in Friday's game against the Detroit Red Wings, and was eventually deemed unable to play in yesterday's game against the Minnesota Wild after leaving Saturday's practice after just 10 minutes.

ON TSN1050's First Up this morning, TSN insider Darren Dreger revealed what the nature of Klingberg's injury is. He also revealed that there may be much more to it than what we all think.

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"They're calling it a lower-body. It looks hip related to me, just based on the lack of mobility and history, but I don't know if it's more significant than that. The fact he wasn't available in Sweden tells you there is a lot more going on there than being on the limp," revealed Dreger.

Dreger then mentioned that Klingberg's injury flared up almost a month ago.

"I think it dates back somewhere in the middle of October in a game against the Florida Panthers where he may have tweaked something and didn't tell anyone and just kept battling and playing through it and, in that process, his game eroded too. He became more maligned than ever and maybe because the injury worsened to a point where he had to deal with it, that's where we are at now. So I wouldn't be surprised at all if he becomes and LTIR target."

Klingberg signed a 1-year, $4.15M deal with the Leafs on July 2nd in an attempt to help take some of the offensive pressure off of Morgan Rielly. However, things have not worked out for Klingberg so far this season. Should the Leafs place him on LTIR, it would free up a lot of cap space and allow the Leafs to activate Conor Timmins from LTIR without having to play with a reduced roster size. It would also give Leafs GM Brad Treliving more flexibility to make a trade in that he would not have to ask for a team to retain salary, lowering the acquisition cost.

It will be interesting to see how this week plays out for Klingberg, given that the Leafs do not play again until Friday afternoon against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Previously on MapleLeafsDaily

8 Auston Matthews fans do something cool for Leafs legend Mats Sundin in Sweden

Former NHL defenseman of over 1,100 games reveals who he thinks the Leafs should bring in

Analysts discuss Marner's retaliatory slash and how the team has responded since Liljegren's injury

POLL
20 NOVEMBRE \| 277 ANSWERS Insider reveals details surrounding John Klingberg's mysterious injury and what may occur next What should the Leafs do with Klingberg?
Trade him	69	24.9 %
LTIR him	145	52.3 %
Try to void his contract somehow	44	15.9 %
Keep him and hope he heals	19	6.9 %
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