How screwed are the Maple Leafs without Auston Matthews?

With Auston Matthews out of the lineup for at least the next four weeks with a shoulder injury, just how deeply in trouble are the Maple Leafs in the meantime?

Everything was going just fine for the Toronto Maple Leafs heading into Saturday’s match-up with the Winnipeg Jets. They led the league in goal scoring, sat near the top of the league in total points with a 7-3-0 record, and had hopes running high that they’re going to be a dominant team all season long.

Then in the second period of their game against the Jets, all of Toronto had their world rocked. Franchise center Auston Matthews cut in front of the net and received a clean check from Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba right on the shoulder, sending him right to the locker room where he would not return for the rest of the game.

The Maple Leafs announced Monday morning that Matthews will be placed on IR and is expected to miss the next four weeks of action. Matthews currently leads the team in points with ten goals and six assists in eleven games.

This isn’t the first time that the Leafs have had to be without Auston Matthews before, and not even his first shoulder injury. Matthews missed 20 games over the span of last season with a concussion and shoulder injury, but the opposite shoulder than the one he injured last Saturday.

So are the Maple Leafs in serious trouble without their number one center? Well, yes and no. Obviously Matthews is the best player on Toronto and shared the league lead in goals, and losing that will undoubtedly hurt their overall offense. But that’s another thing, their offense is still absolutely ridiculous and will keep on rolling without him. In fact, in the twenty games Toronto player without Matthews last year, the Maple Leafs went 11-7-2 with a lesser team than they have now.

Honestly, the Leafs might end up being alright over the next four weeks. Their talent is so outrageously deep offensively, that they can afford to take their time with bringing Matthews back. John Tavares will get promoted to number one center, and Nazem Kadri will move up to center the second line with Marner and Marleau, a line that had great success during the second half of last season.

William Nylander is still in a contract stalemate with Leafs management, so they’ll be missing both Matthews and Nylander’s services, but again thats just a testament as to how good their offense since they can be missing two elite forwards and still be considered one of the best scoring teams in the league. That Nylander dispute has to be entering it’s final stages, so he’ll eventually be back as well, making them even better.

All in all, the Maple Leafs are going to miss having Auston Matthews in the lineup, but they’re really not “in trouble”. Matthews did get off to that hot start where he scored ridiculous ten goals in six games, but he hasn’t scored a goal in his last five games, and is pointless in the last four. Toronto has survived his absence before, and they can do it again.