Tavares reveals his status for opening night

After an early pre season oblique injury, it looked like the Leafs would have to start the 2022-23 season without captain John Tavares. The original timeline was somewhere around 3 weeks.

Tavares joined practice as a full participant both yesterday and today. He skated on a line with William Nylander and Denis Malgin as well as on the first Powerplay unit. Asked after practice today about his status for the Leafs' season opener against Montreal, Tavares had this to say:

This is a great sign for the Leafs. As it stands, with their salary cap situation, they would be forced to play with 19 players if Tavares isn't available. After that they can recall Nick Robertson on an emergency basis. It seems for now like that situation has been avoided and that Tavares will in fact be in the lineup on Wednesday.

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