Leafs place Klingberg on long-term injured reserve
The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without John Klingberg for the foreseeable future.
Today, the team announced they’d placed the defenceman on long-term injured reserve after he’d been dealing with a nagging lower-body issue, reportedly believed to be his hip, per multiple reports.
The @MapleLeafs have recalled F Alex Steeves from the @TorontoMarlies.
D John Klingberg has been placed on long-term injured reserve.
— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) November 23, 2023
In his place, forward Alex Steeves has been called up from the Toronto Marlies.
“His status is that he is working through things to determine what is going to be the next steps for him,” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said in relation to Klingberg at practice earlier today.
Signing in Toronto on a one-year, $4.15 million deal, the 31-year-old defenceman hasn’t played in either of the team’s last two games.
In 14 games this season, Klingberg has registered five assists in 20:33 of ice time per night, but he’s been on the ice for 19 goals against in the process, an average of 1.35 per night.
“Apparently, his [injury] issues were made even worse by being on a couple of long flights heading over to Sweden and back. So I don’t know where that one ends up. I think you have a player there that is very proud; he gave an emotional scrum while we were in Stockholm just talking about how he just so badly wants to play again and get to a spot where he can do that,” hockey insider Chris Johnston reported on a recent episode of The Athletic‘s Leafs Report podcast.
The Leafs are next in action on Friday, when they visit the Chicago Blackhawks for a 2 pm ET puck drop to coincide with the day after American Thanksgiving.
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