Dakota Mermis Out One Month
- Staying in Ontario, the Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t expecting depth defenseman Dakota Mermis to return anytime soon. Lance Hornby of The Toronto Sun reported that Mermis, who was placed on injured reserve earlier today, is expected to miss a month with a lower-body injury. The nine-year veteran left Toronto’s game in the third period on Wednesday due to the injury.
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Maple Leafs Recall Henry Thrun
The Maple Leafs announced they’ve recalled defenseman Henry Thrun from AHL Toronto. They placed defenseman Dakota Mermis on injured reserve in a corresponding move. He left Monday’s game against the Lightning after sustaining a lower-body injury on a hit from Gage Goncalves and is day-to-day.
Thrun, 24, will be making his Leafs debut if he gets into a game. The lefty was initially drafted by the Ducks in 2019 but opted not to sign with them when his collegiate career with Harvard ended in 2023, and saw his signing rights traded to the Sharks.
It was a smart pickup for a rebuilding San Jose club, as Thrun managed to work his way into the lineup for the majority of their games over the last two seasons. He was flexed between the NHL and AHL in 2023-24 but spent all of last season on the Sharks’ roster. A skilled skater and puck-mover who flirted with the point-per-game mark over his last two years in college, Thrun didn’t look entirely out of place. In 2023-24, he averaged 20 minutes of ice time per game, second to only Mario Ferraro among Sharks defenders. That usage dropped to 17:31 last year as they circulated some more depth in, losing out on some power-play time.
Through 119 games as a Shark, Thrun logged a 5-20–25 scoring line with a predictably gaudy -48 rating as a young player stepping into a defensive mess in San Jose. Still, his possession metrics left something to be desired. His 42.9% shot attempt share at 5-on-5 was still a couple of percentage points below how the Sharks were faring without him on the ice.
With San Jose having plenty of younger, higher-ceiling defenders in the pipeline, they dealt Thrun to Toronto over the summer for enforcer Ryan Reaves. Some had penciled Thrun into a bottom-pairing role alongside Oliver Ekman-Larsson to begin the year, but both Simon Benoit and Philippe Myers emerged ahead of him on the depth chart by the end of training camp. He was placed on waivers and, somewhat surprisingly, cleared, perhaps as a result of his $1MM cap hit.
Thrun hasn’t broken the bank in the minors, although he’s still been serviceable with nine points and a -5 rating through 19 AHL games. The younger William Villeneuve has emerged as the Marlies’ No. 1 this season. However, it’s not particularly surprising to see the Leafs opt for someone with NHL experience who may still have untapped potential, rather than Villeneuve, who has no NHL games to his name.
It took all of Mermis, Brandon Carlo, and Chris Tanev being on IR or LTIR, but Thrun will finally get his first look as a Leaf. That could come as soon as tomorrow against his former team after the Leafs said Morgan Rielly couldn’t practice today due to an illness. If he’s deployed more as an offensive specialist than how he was used in San Jose, there could be some legitimate benefits to reap on a team that’s done a good job of generating offense from its blue line this season.
Maple Leafs’ Bobby McMann Suspended One Game
The NHL Department of Player Safety has announced that Toronto Maple Leafs forward Bobby McMann has been suspended one game for high-sticking.
The infraction in question occurred during last night’s Maple Leafs game, when the club took on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Early in the third period, Toronto was defending a 1-0 lead, and Toronto’s Simon Benoit took down Tampa Bay’s Jack Finley with a hard, legal check. Tampa Bay forward Gage Goncalves appeared to respond to the hit by delivering his own check to Maple Leafs defenseman Dakota Mermis, who was collecting a puck in Toronto’s corner. Things escalated from that point, with a scrum breaking out near the center of the ice and Goncalves fighting Maple Leafs forward Dakota Joshua.
Goncalves was assessed a match penalty for his hit on Mermis, with the key point of controversy on the play being the apparent knee-on-knee contact of Goncalves’ hit. During the center-ice scrum that broke out as a result of Goncalves’ hit, McMann responded to a shove from Lightning forward Oliver Bjorkstrand by hitting Bjorkstrand on the top of the helmet, with some force, with his stick. McMann was assessed his own match penalty on the play.
In their video explaining their decision, the Department of Player Safety said that McMann struck Bjorkstrand’s head “with sufficient force to merit supplemental discipline.” The Department of Player Safety drew a clear distinction between the aggressive manner in which McMann lowered his stick and the conventional way a player would be expected to lower a raised stick. They also considered the intentionality of the act, stating that McMann was “in full control” of his stick and his body at all times of the incident in question. They added that McMann “simply must display more control” to ensure his stick does not strike an opposing player’s head in such a manner.
McMann has no prior history of supplemental discipline at the NHL level, which is a factor the Department takes into account. This suspension will cost McMann the chance to play in Toronto’s game on Thursday against the San Jose Sharks. McMann has eight goals and 14 points across 29 games this season. He ranks seventh among Maple Leafs forwards in time on ice per game, averaging 14:19 per game with most of that being at even strength.
Chris Tanev Sheds Non-Contact Jersey
- Moving to Toronto, the Maple Leafs may also return a pair of injured players in the next few days. According to David Alter of The Hockey News, defenseman Chris Tanev is no longer skating in a non-contact jersey. Additionally, Alter reported similarly on defenseman Marshall Rifai, who has also shed his non-contact jersey. Tanev has missed much of the 2025-26 campaign due to an upper-body injury, and his absence has played a significant role in the Maple Leafs allowing over 31 shots a game from their opponents.
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Woll Should Only Miss A Week, Tanev And Rifai Take Part In Morning Skate
While Joseph Woll landed on injured reserve today, the hope is that he will only miss the minimum of seven days, notes Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic (Twitter link). Woll had been used quite heavily by the Maple Leafs since returning from a leave of absence, making eight starts in nine games and did well, posting a 2.44 GAA and a .923 SV%. With Anthony Stolarz not close to returning, it appears Toronto has dodged the worst-case scenario when it comes to their other netminder.
Maple Leafs Place Joseph Woll On IR
The Toronto Maple Leafs’ situation between the pipes has hit a new low for the 2025-26 season. The Maple Leafs announced that they have placed netminder Joseph Woll on the injured reserve and have recalled Artur Akhtyamov in a corresponding roster move.
Woll, who suffered a lower-body injury against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, had become Toronto’s de facto starter over the last few weeks. Considering fellow netminder Anthony Stolarz has missed nearly a month with an upper-body injury, the Maple Leafs had to rely on Woll for some stability in the crease.
That’s exactly what he provided. In his eight starts since Stolarz departed from the active roster, Woll has managed a 4-3-1 record with a .923 SV% and 2.44 GAA. According to Hockey Reference, Woll’s 6.1 Goals Saved Above Average has already surpassed Stolarz’s output, despite the latter playing in five more contests.
Moving forward, until one of Woll or Stolarz returns, Toronto will have to rely on an inexperienced duo to navigate them through the next little while. It’s expected that Dennis Hildeby will assume the starting role, as he’s earned a 1-2-1 record in six starts this year with a .919% SV% and 2.86 GAA.
However, Hildeby has only 13 NHL appearances under his belt, earning a combined record of 4-5-1 with a career .896 SV% and 3.12 GAA. Akhtyamov, on the other hand, has never suited up in an NHL contest and is only in his second professional season in North America.
Despite being in his second campaign with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, Akhtyamov, 24, hasn’t shown any meaningful signs of growth. He owns a career 18-13-7 record with the Marlies with a .900 SV%, and has only averaged a .896 mark this season.
Lower-Body Injury For Woll
- The Maple Leafs announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Joseph Woll suffered a lower-body injury tonight against Carolina and did not return after playing the first two periods. Since returning from a leave of absence, Toronto has used Woll quite frequently, starting him in eight of nine games. He has done rather well, too, posting a .919 SV% in those outings. Anthony Stolarz has been out for nearly four weeks with an upper-body injury and hasn’t resumed skating so any absence for Woll would be problematic for a Toronto team that’s trying to recover from a tough start to the season.
Healthy Goalies Could Make Hildeby Or Akhtyamov Available; McCue Traded In OHL
Last season, the tandem of Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll gave the Maple Leafs a strong game-to-game presence between the pipes. However, they’ve yet to both dress in the same game so far this season. In his latest column for the Toronto Star, Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos argues that getting both healthy at the same time is crucial, though not just for the obvious reason of having two starting-level goaltenders at their disposal. As a result of making several buyer moves in recent years, Toronto’s trade capital in terms of prospects has been diminished. A return to health for Stolarz to join Woll could make it more palatable for them to move one of Dennis Hildeby or Artur Akhtyamov. At a time when a lot of teams appear to be looking for extra goalie depth, having one of them as a movable trade chip could improve their fortunes on the trade front.
- Still with the Maple Leafs, prospect Sam McCue is on the move in the OHL as Ottawa announced that they’ve acquired him from Brantford in exchange for a pair of draft picks. Toronto selected the 20-year-old in the seventh round in 2024 and he’s playing in his final major junior season. McCue has 10 goals and six assists in 25 games so far this season and will probably need to pick up the offensive pace if he wants to secure an entry-level deal with the Leafs by the beginning of June.
Leafs’ Brandon Carlo Likely To Undergo Surgery, Out Indefinitely
The Maple Leafs will be without defenseman Brandon Carlo for a good chunk of the season. After telling reporters yesterday that Carlo had a setback in his recovery from a lower-body injury and was meeting a specialist, head coach Craig Berube said today that the righty will need surgery and will be out “an extended period of time” (via David Alter of The Hockey News).
Carlo has already missed seven games due to the injury he sustained against the Kings on Nov. 13. It’s still unclear what play caused it; he didn’t appear to miss a shift. It wouldn’t be shocking if Carlo had been playing through something and aggravated it. The 6’5″ shutdown rearguard has been noticeably less involved in the play than normal this season, averaging a career-low 0.67 hits per game. That’s a 56% decrease from his career average of 1.51.
Physicality and defensive smarts are where Carlo makes his money, and they’re why the Maple Leafs parted ways with a steep package – including Fraser Minten and this year’s first-round pick – to acquire him from the Bruins at last season’s trade deadline. Carlo’s contract situation was a significant factor as to why Toronto paid a premium. Not only was he not a rental – he remains under contract through 2026-27 – but Boston retained 15% of his cap hit to bring it down to $3.485MM for the Leafs. That’s a great price tag for someone Toronto imagined would be consistently deployed as a top-four defender as an anchor for Morgan Rielly.
Unfortunately, the Reilly-Carlo experiment has largely fallen flat. The duo was outscored 10-9 in last year’s postseason. This year, they’re allowing 3.11 expected goals against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, the most of any Toronto defensive pair. Carlo’s -4.2% relative Corsi share is the third-worst figure of his career. And while he’s not known or relied upon for offense, his two assists through 18 games are also a slightly lower pace than what he usually posts.
With another year left on his contract at an already-reduced cap hit, the struggling Maple Leafs might have looked to flip Carlo as they look to retool their depth on the fly, particularly in the name of improving their defensive structure. Only the Sharks have allowed more shots per game this season than Toronto’s 31.4. With fellow top-four righty Chris Tanev also on the shelf as he rehabs a suspected concussion, keeping him out indefinitely, their depth has been tested.
If the Leafs’ focus is still on getting significantly ahead of the .500 mark for the first time this season and putting themselves back in the playoff conversation, finding a higher-profile stopgap on the right side than recent waiver claim Troy Stecher needs to be a priority – especially if Carlo’s return timeline is now months, not weeks.
Latest On Brandon Carlo
The Philadelphia Flyers announced mid game that forward Tyson Foerster will not return after sustaining an upper-body injury. The winger unloaded on a one-timer and immediately went down in a non-contact play, appearing to favor his shoulder. Although Foerster was on injured reserve earlier this season, it was a lower-body injury with no apparent correlation.
Foerster, 23, was a great find at 23rd overall by the Flyers in 2020. The 6’2” winger has scored nine goals in 20 games, on track to take another step forward after last year’s 25 goal, 18 assist campaign where he appeared in 81 games. Especially as Philadelphia has found their stride of late, firmly in the Wild Card mix as of today, the hope will be that the top line forward will not be out for long.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Toronto Head Coach Craig Berube told David Alter of The Hockey News that defenseman Brandon Carlo had a setback in his recovery, and will return home to see a specialist. Placed on IR two weeks ago, the 29-year-old has been dealing with a lower-body injury. As he practiced in recent days, it appeared Carlo could be gearing up for a return tomorrow at Florida, before the setback. The towering blueliner’s struggles to acclimate to the Leafs have been well discussed, especially considering the steep package GM Brad Treliving gave up. Troy Stecher, claimed off waivers, has been a steady presence to alleviate pressure on Philippe Myers in Carlo’s absence, but if the Leafs are to turn their season around, Carlo must find his game when healthy.
- Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar told Meghan Angley of Guerilla Sports that forward Valeri Nichushkin is a “possibility” for tomorrow, as Colorado hosts Vancouver. The often injured 30-year-old went down with a lower-body ailment against the Ducks on November 12th and was listed as week-to-week. When ready, Nichushkin will likely jump right back into a top-six role where he had 12 points in 17 games before going down. In his absence, Ross Colton has filled in adequately and the team has not missed a beat, currently atop the league with just one regulation loss, a sign of their depth after a wildly successful roster shakeup.