{"id":485507,"date":"2026-03-19T18:09:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T22:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=485507"},"modified":"2026-03-19T18:09:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T22:09:19","slug":"toronto-maple-leafs-captain-auston-matthews-undergoes-knee-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/03\/19\/toronto-maple-leafs-captain-auston-matthews-undergoes-knee-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Maple Leafs Captain Auston Matthews Undergoes Knee Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Thursday, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/03\/14\/nhl-predictions-march-14-toronto-maple-leafs-vs-buffalo-sabres\/\" target=\"_self\">Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> announced that captain <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/matthau01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-19_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Auston Matthews<\/a> has <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/article\/maple-leafs-matthews-undergoes-successful-mcl-surgery\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">undergone successful knee surgery<\/a>. The procedure was completed Thursday in New York City to repair a torn MCL. In an announcement from the team, recovery is expected to take around 12 weeks.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bluesky-embed\" data-bluesky-uri=\"at:\/\/did:plc:zazcjahlcb3jfrhcriq7xpn7\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mhgw3djwzs26\" data-bluesky-cid=\"bafyreidxzgjtdohibwkw57iewsjtwfl2yc2mt55afwncugno2wxbxzo3ky\">\n<p lang=\"en\">The Toronto Maple Leafs announced an update on Auston Matthews knee injury on Thursday:<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; <a  href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:zazcjahlcb3jfrhcriq7xpn7?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">TSN (@tsnofficial.bsky.social)<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:zazcjahlcb3jfrhcriq7xpn7\/post\/3mhgw3djwzs26?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2026-03-19T21:11:20.744Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/embed.bsky.app\/static\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Auston Matthews Undergoes MCL Surgery<\/h2>\n<p>Matthews was injured after a knee-on-knee hit from <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/03\/09\/anaheim-ducks-storylines-at-the-three-quarter-mark-of-the-season\/\" target=\"_self\">Anaheim Ducks<\/a> defenceman <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/gudasra01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-19_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Radko Gudas<\/a> on March 12. The Ducks&#8217; captain was subsequently suspended five games for the hit. Matthews suffered a Grade 3 MCL tear and a quad contusion as a result of the hit.<\/p>\n<p>The Leafs&#8217; captain was ruled out for the<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/03\/13\/auston-matthews-out-for-rest-of-2025-26-season\/\" target=\"_self\"> rest of the 2025-26 season<\/a> last week and it seems that surgery will put him out for three months. However, he should be ready for the start of training camp in September.<\/p>\n<p>The former number one overall pick of the 2016 NHL Draft finished the campaign with 27<span> goals and 26 assists in 60 games. He did help captain Team USA to the men&#8217;s hockey gold medal at the 2026 Milano Cortina Games.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Matthews has the franchise&#8217;s career record in goals scored with 428. He has 780 points in 689 career games, all with the Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBoHX1fS7x\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 2992px; aspect-ratio: 2992\/1830;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p><span>(Credit Image: \u00a9 Dirk Shadd\/Tampa Bay Times via ZUMA Press Wire)<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>What It Means<\/h3>\n<p>Injuries and inconsistent play have doomed the Maple Leafs to likely miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Matthews has once again seen his season cut short due to injuries.<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old has had a rough time after notching 69 goals in the 2023-24 season. He only netted 33 goals in 67 games last season, and he&#8217;ll finish short of the 30-goal mark for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been a massive struggle for the Leafs this season and they&#8217;ve fallen well short of the lofty expectations they&#8217;ve commanded in the last few seasons. Matthews will hope that he and the team can get back on track in the 2026-27 campaign.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo by: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Thursday, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that captain Auston Matthews has undergone successful knee surgery. The procedure was completed Thursday in New York City to repair a torn MCL. In an announcement from the team, recovery is expected to take around 12 weeks. The Toronto Maple Leafs announced an update on Auston Matthews knee [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":485236,"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":[228,1576,955,692,5951],"class_list":["post-485507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leafs","category-hockey","category-injuries","category-news","category-nhl","tag-auston-matthews","tag-injury","tag-nhl-news","tag-radko-gudas","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-news"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485507","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\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":485511,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485507\/revisions\/485511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}