Leafs Captain Auston Matthews Publicly Addresses His Injury Issue This Season

Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews provided an odd response to injury questions immediately following his team's loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 7 of their second round series, saying he didn't want to talk about it at all.

Now that the smoke has cleared on the loss, Matthews was a bit more open on the issue during the Maple Leafs' locker room clean-out day.

Matthews, whom one analyst is pushing to request a trade, not only confirmed that he was playing through something in the playoffs, but that the injury was suffered all the way back in training camp in September.

While he wouldn't say exactly what the injury was, Matthews did share that it flared up during the regular season and the playoffs. Luckily for him, it does not require surgery and he believes the rest over the summer means he'll be completely healed for the 2025-26 season.

A follow up question asked the Leafs captain if the injury affected his ability to shoot the puck. He would only say "it affected a lot of things."

Matthews has been torn to shreds by fans and analysts for his lack of production in the post-season. Despite the struggles to produce goals, Matthews did manage to produce a number of assists as well as making an impact on the defensive side of the puck.

It's hard to say if that will be enough to put the brakes on the criticism, but Matthews appears to value the idea of remaining vague on the exact details of the injury.