Maple Leafs make 2 injury-related roster moves on Saturday.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are being forced to make some roster adjustments as some of the injured players they have had sideline this season are starting to get healthy and make their way back from injury.

On Saturday that took the shape of two roster moves with the most notable of the two moves being the return of veteran forward Max Pacioretty. Pacioretty has not played since the 9th of Novemeber during a game against the team he formerly captained, the Montreal Canadiens, having missed the majority of the month of Novemember while sidelined with an injury.

Pacioretty was on long term injured reserve while he dealt with the injury but was activated off of LTIR on Saturday.

The other move, one that was no doubt made in part due to Pacioretty's return to the roster, is the addition of veteran defenseman Jake McCabe to injured reserve. McCabe has been placed on IR by the Leafs but the move is retroactive to November 30th so in the grand scheme of things it doesn't mean a whole lot. The Maple Leafs are clearly looking to make roster space for the returning Pacioretty, and placing McCabe on IR gives them a little extra time to think about which players may get moved out of the lineup.

The fact that it has been done retroactive to November 30th means that the Maple Leafs will be able to activate McCabe at any point in time, likely when they have the roster space that will allow them to do so.

The Maple Leafs do have a game later tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins which does however suggest that McCabe is very unlikely to suit up to that game unless the Maple Leafs make additional roster moves today.

Stay tuned for more details