{"id":476544,"date":"2025-10-23T18:35:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T22:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=476544"},"modified":"2025-10-24T15:35:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T19:35:04","slug":"toronto-maple-leafs-injury-news-update-defenceman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/10\/23\/toronto-maple-leafs-injury-news-update-defenceman\/","title":{"rendered":"The Toronto Maple Leafs Have an Injury Update from the Blueline"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/09\/27\/puck-drop-preview-toronto-maple-leafs-2025-26-season-nhl-predictions\" target=\"_self\">Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> are in the news on this Thursday.\u00a0Rugged defender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/t\/tanevch01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-23_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Tanev<\/a> is being placed on injured reserve following an upper-body <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/nhl\/article\/maple-leafs-place-chris-tanev-on-injured-reserve-recall-dakota-mermis\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">injury<\/a>. Let&#8217;s figure out what it means for the current state of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/10\/07\/2025-26-nhl-atlantic-divisional-standings-predictions-eastern-conference\" target=\"_self\">Leafs<\/a> blueline. The injury occurred in Tuesday&#8217;s 5-2 downing at the hands of the New Jersey Devils. The injury was caused by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/merceda01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-23_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dawson Mercer<\/a> accidentally hitting him in the head.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">With Chris Tanev (upper body) being placed on injured reserve, the <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/leafs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#leafs<\/a> have recalled Dakota Mermis from the AHL.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/reporterchris\/status\/1981375415114518829?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>At this time, little is known, however, he has a expected return listed as October 29th. So that&#8217;s what we will go with.<\/p>\n<h3>Toronto Maple Leaf Defenceman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/t\/tanevch01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-23_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Tanev<\/a> has Upper-Body Injury<\/h3>\n<p>Chris Tanev is a key part of the Leafs blueline as a defensive defenceman. He has been banged up thus far in 2025-26, and having him healthy for the stretch drive is very important to the Leafs chances.<\/p>\n<p>So far on the year, Tanev has one assist through seven games, in 17:42 of average ice time a game. Given his propensity for 5v5 defensive starts, his Corsi-For percent relative is -2.9. For him, it is mostly about getting it out of the zone and maintaining possession. You know, being consistent.<\/p>\n<p>With this news <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mermida01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-23_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dakota Mermis<\/a> is called up from the AHL&#8217;s Toronto Marlies. Mermis has had a journeyman&#8217;s like career. He&#8217;s played everywhere from Green Bay, Wisconsin to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and lots in between.<\/p>\n<h3>The Leafs Have Options On the Blueline<\/h3>\n<p>The defenceman have been remarkably healthy for Toronto up until now. They&#8217;ve only played the <a  href=\"https:\/\/moneypuck.com\/lines.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">same six<\/a> in all seven of the club&#8217;s games leading up to the injury news. Therefore, Mermis will slot into the lineup in all likelihood. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/myersph01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-23_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Philippe Myers<\/a> is also up with the club. The idea is that the two successful, intact pairs will likely stay together. That means that even though they haven&#8217;t played together a lot to this point, they have played extremely well together. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mccabja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-23_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jake McCabe<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/carlobr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-23_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brandon Carlo<\/a> will slot in as the top pairing. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/benoisi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-23_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Simon Benoit<\/a> does well with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/e\/ekmanol01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-23_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oliver Ekman-Larsson<\/a>, but so does <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/riellmo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-23_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Morgan Rielly<\/a>.\u00a0 Those five round out the defence. It is a battle between Myers and Mermis for the sixth slot in Tanev&#8217;s absence. It kind of boils down to pairings&#8217; chemistry or the physicality factor, you know.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the news on this Thursday.\u00a0Rugged defender Chris Tanev is being placed on injured reserve following an upper-body injury. Let&#8217;s figure out what it means for the current state of the Leafs blueline. The injury occurred in Tuesday&#8217;s 5-2 downing at the hands of the New Jersey Devils. The injury [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4222,"featured_media":476547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,4547,6671,34,4548],"tags":[565],"class_list":["post-476544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leafs","category-hockey","category-injuries","category-news","category-nhl","tag-chris-tanev"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476544"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476604,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476544\/revisions\/476604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}