Toronto Maple Leafs forward Matias Maccelli has been made a healthy scratch for today’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, reports The Hockey News’ David Alter. The move comes as Toronto sits 23rd in the NHL, having had a slower-than-expected start to the season. Their 6-5-1 record places them 23rd in the league standings at this early point in the season. While a player getting healthy scratched is a relatively routine occurrence and not hugely noteworthy on its own, tracking Maccelli’s standing in Toronto is of a heightened importance due to the transaction he was involved in over the summer.
When Toronto acquired Maccelli in June, they sent a conditional 2027 third-round pick to the Utah Mammoth, with the condition being that if Maccelli scores at least 51 points (and Toronto reaches the playoffs), the pick upgrades to a 2029 second-rounder. At this stage, not only is Toronto outside of a playoff spot, but Maccelli is scoring at a 35-point pace. So, at this stage, it does not seem as though Utah will receive the upgraded draft choice, though it is important to stress how early in the season it is. It was just two years ago that Maccelli looked like one of the more promising young wingers in the game after he scored 106 points in 146 games across two seasons, so while his start to his season as a Maple Leaf hasn’t been ideal, it’s still far from a certainty that he won’t end up passing the thresholds for his former team to get the 2029 second-rounder.
Other notes from the Atlantic Division:
- Florida Panthers winger Jonah Gadjovich will not travel with the team on its upcoming road trip as the full recovery timeline for his upper-body injury is still being worked out, per team reporter Rob Darragh. Gadjovich hasn’t played since Oct. 25, when he sustained the injury in a game against the Vegas Golden Knights. The physical 6’3″ winger has played a reserve role on the Panthers’ back-to-back championship teams, skating in 81 total regular-season games and scoring eight points across the 2023-24 and 2024-25 campaigns. Gadjovich also played in 16 playoff games last season and has three points in 10 games so far this season. Gadjovich skated as the fourth-line left winger when he last played, alongside Cole Schwindt and A.J. Greer. That spot has since been filled by Noah Gregor, one of Gadjovich’s former teammates from their shared time with the San Jose Sharks.
- Last week, we covered news that Boston Bruins center Elias Lindholm would be out on a week-to-week basis with a lower-body injury suffered in the team’s Oct. 30 victory over the Buffalo Sabres. Today, the team confirmed to the media (including WEEI’s Scott McLaughlin) that Lindholm’s MRI confirmed that the center would be out with a week-to-week recovery timeline. It’s a significant loss for the Bruins, who count on Lindholm as a key top-six center. Lindholm lined up as the team’s number-one center in that Oct. 30 contest against Buffalo, a spot that has since been filled by Marat Khusnutdinov. Lindholm had gotten off to a solid start to the 2025-26 season, scoring nine points in 13 games. That’s a 57-point 82-game scoring pace, a notable improvement from last season when he scored 47 points across 82 games.