Leafs shift Muzzin from IR to LTIR, opening up an enormous amount of cap space
Last week, the Leafs placed Jake Muzzin on injured reserve, meaning he was required to be out for a minimum of 7 days. The hope was that after the 7 days Muzzin would be re-assessed and might able to join the Leafs. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
The Leafs placed Muzzin on LTIR this evening opening up an additional $5.625M in cap relief, giving the Leafs a total of $12.462M in cap space. Of course, Timothy Liljegren, and Jordie Benn will be returning soon as they have been loaned to the Marlies for a conditioning stint and Matt Murray should be back in the 2nd week of November.
With such a massive hole on the Leafs' blueline and the cap space available, is it time the Leafs re-enter the Jakob Chychrun sweepstakes? Or do they take a run at New Jersey's Damon Severson? Or will the Buds do what they did last year and opt not to bring in another body and instead keep the cap space open for Muzzin once he returns - IF he returns.
For Muzzin, this marks the third consecutive season with significant injury issues. On top of that, Muzz has also been dealing with a back injury for quite some time, which has had to be managed by he and the team. Perhaps we're looking at a potential LTIRetirement here.
Hopefully we'll have some sort of an update on Muzzin's condition this week that can help provide a little more clarity.
