Leafs send defenseman down to the AHL, retain another; what does this mean for Lyubushkin?
The Toronto Maple Leafs were forced to make a pair of emergency recalls on Wednesday, just in case they were in need of some bodies on the blueline on Thursday against the Jets.
Both Justin Holl and Ilya Lyubushkin departed Tuesday's game in Boston with head injuries and were held out of the remainder of the game for precautionary reasons. Marlies defensemen Filip Kral and Mac Hollowell had been called up as a result.
The Leafs received some good news and some bad news on Thursday regarding Holl and Lyubushkin, with the former being cleared to play, while the latter was ruled out with a neck and jaw injury after being sucker punched by Bruins winger Taylor Hall on Tuesday.
On Friday, the Leafs announced, via their official PR account on Twitter, that one of their emergency recalls had been loaned back to the Toronto Marlies ahead of their matchup against the Manitoba Moose in Winnipeg on Friday evening. Per LeafsPR, Filip Kral is headed back to the AHL.
Hollowell currently remains with the team, so Kral being sent down may not necessarily mean that Lyubushkin is ready to return to action, but it would appear more likely than not that he's at least close.
The Leafs will travel to Philadelphia on Friday to take on the Flyers on Saturday night. I would imagine that at some point this afternoon or tomorrow morning that we'll have some sort of an update on Lyubushkin. For the meantime, it appears as though Hollowell will stick around with the Buds.
| POLL | ||
1 AVRIL | 238 ANSWERS Leafs send defenseman down to the AHL, retain another; what does this mean for Lyubushkin? Will Ilya Lyubushkin be ready to go in Philly tomorrow? | ||
| Yes | 150 | 63 % |
| No | 88 | 37 % |
| List of polls | ||
