Leafs' Auston Matthews Officially Lands on Injured Reserve

Many were surprised when Auston Matthews missed Tuesday's morning skate ahead of their 4-0 shutout win over the Boston Bruins. When the Leafs announced that he had an upper-body injury, the concerns began to rise.

Matthews has not been on the ice since the Leafs lost to the Minnesota Wild on Sunday and while head coach Craig Berube provided a somewhat positive update on Friday after the Leafs' optional skate, the subsequent roster move caught many by surprise.

The Leafs announced that Matthews was placed on IR retroactive to November 3rd and officially activated Connor Dewar from LTIR and recalled him from his conditioning stint with the Toronto Marlies.

While Matthews has struggled under Berube offensively, he has been fantastic defensively. However, The Athletic's Jonas Siegel did a deep dive into Matthews' injury and noticed that there has been a handful of occasions where Matthews has struggled at the start of the season over his career as a result of a 'nagging' injury that hindered his offensive capabilities and this time appears to be no different.

Being placed on injured reserve means that Matthews will be ineligible to play this weekend as the minimum stint on IR is seven days.

Given that Berube noted things were moving in a positive direction, Matthews could return Tuesday against the Ottawa Senators, but that would be dependent on him being able to partake in practice or at least return to the ice in some capacity first.

TSN's Chris Johnston reported when the move was made that it was merely a move to create roster space to recall Dewar and give the Leafs extra time to sort out their roster situation.