Auston Matthews MRI: Why the Maple Leafs must face the 'shut down' reality regardless of results

There is no official update regarding Matthews' status after the injury and reports show that the team is awaiting an MRI result before announcing his status for the season.

The news was relayed on X by NHL insider John Shannon:

While Maple Leafs fans hold their breath, it's time for the team to make a decision.

There's no way to sugarcoat it, Matthews needs to sit. Toronto is trying to lose as many games as possible and while you don't want your captain to be out the rest of the year for morale purposes; you'd rather him be healthy for next year.

A lost season gives no merit to Craig Berube, Brad Treliving or anyone in the Maple Leafs to push Matthews to finish things off, he's already dealt with injuries (with a concern as late as last week) and there's no reason to risk his future with the team.

In a year where Toronto wants to finish as close to the bottom-five as possible, Matthews sitting may be the best course of action. It's just a shame that it happened at all, and Gudas will hopefully be rightly punished by Player Safety for yet another infraction.

If Matthews were to miss the rest of the season, that would mark his second straight season without hitting 70 games, and has still only once reached the 82-game mark in a season - his rookie season.

In 60 games, he has 53 points (27 goals, 26 assists) but is a minus-4 and has dealt with injury concerns this season as well as last. Matthews did help the US win a gold medal at the 2026 Olympics this past February.

There's a lot of concern now about where Matthews' future lies and whether or not this is an injury that will keep him out throughout the summer and into next season or something he can recover from in time.

Also read on Hockey Patrol :
Radko Gudas granted phone hearing: Why NHL rules limit suspension to 5 games for Matthews hit