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The Maple Leafs announced late Friday that the captain and franchise goals leader will miss the rest of the 2025-26 season with a Grade 3 tear of the medial collateral ligament in his left knee.
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The injury was suffered Thursday night when Matthews was struck knee on knee by Anaheim Ducks defenceman Radko Gudas. A couple of hours after the Leafs revealed the extent of the damage to Matthews, the National Hockey League’s department of player safety suspended repeat offender Gudas five games, the maximum expected from a phone hearing the office initiated Friday morning, versus in-person, which usually carries a stiffer penalty.
The Ducks’ next game is on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET against the host Ottawa Senators, though Gudas will be re-activated in time to face the Leafs on March 30 in Anaheim.
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The injury brings to a close an unfortunate season for Matthews and the Leafs as a whole. While he struggled all season to find his all-star form, encouraged by winning a gold medal as captain of Team USA at the recent Milan Olympics, he returned to NHL play and laboured through a 12-game goal-less streak.
That ended in the Maple Leafs’ 6-4 win over the Ducks, just before the Gudas hit.
Matthews had 27 goals and 26 assists in 60 games, having passed Mats Sundin with 421 Leaf goals in early January
While Matthews struggled in March, the Leafs lost eight straight games. The team likely will not qualify for the National Hockey League playoffs for the first time in Matthews’ 10 seasons in Toronto.
The Leafs had Friday off and were expected to comment on Matthews and the Gudas suspension before Saturday’s game in Buffalo.
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Part of the DOPS video that announced the suspension included an assertion by Gudas that he was trying to make a full body check and prevent a scoring play, but “this contact can not be excused.”
“Gudas tries to play physical, that’s probably what has kept him in the league as long as he has,” Leafs forward John Tavares said after Thursday’s game.
“You respect players who have to play that way. But that (the Matthews hit) is a little too far.”
Gudas has served four previous suspensions for mostly stick work, mostly between 2015-19, the worst a 10-game ban for slashing. This will be 26 games in all that he has been suspended, costing him in the vicinity of $1 million US.
He was in the news for the wrong reasons during the Winter Olympics for a hit on Sidney Crosby that knocked Canada’s captain out of a quarterfinal game against Czechia, the tournament as a whole, and the NHL season to date.
“I am very shocked and disappointed the league would allow for such a ruling,” Matthews’ agent, Judd Moldaver, told The Athletic’s Chris Johnston, adding it was a “reckless and ridiculous position” for DOPS to take in relation to protecting other skill players.
Lhornby@postmedia.com
X: @sunhornby
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