Long absence announced for Auston Matthews, will miss All-Star weekend

The Toronto Maple Leafs have just announced that forward Auston Matthews will be out at least the next three weeks with a knee injury.

The team said Matthews suffered a knee sprain in Wednesday’s overtime win against the New York Rangers. The fact that the team mentions “Minimum” has to be concerning...

This means that the Maple Leafs superstar will miss next week's All-Star Game as a result of the injury.

The NHL did not waste time and named Florida Panthers' Aleksander Barkov as Matthews' replacement on the Atlantic Division roster. 

Matthews logged 21:53 of ice time against the Rangers on Wednesday, the game in which he sustained the knee sprained. In 47 games this season, the star forward has put up 25 goals and 53 points.

Moments before the Maple Leafs made the announcement on Matthews’ status, his absence from the morning skate was quickly noticed on social media.

This is what the lineup is projected to look like against the Ottawa Senators later tonight, without Matthews:

Bunting - Tavares - Marner
Jarnkrok - Holmberg - Nylander
McMann - Kampf - Engvall
Aston-Reese - Kerfoot - Anderson
Simmonds

Rielly - Holl
Giordano - Liljegren
Sandin - Timmins
Brodie - Benn

Murray & Samsonov

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