Leafs Officially Announce Roster Move Forcing Jake McCabe to Miss Extended Time

During the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 OT victory against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday, defenseman Jake McCabe suffered an undisclosed upper-body injury after Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway ended up landing on him after a fight leading to McCabe slamming his head on the ice.

There was also a potential additional injury as Hathaway ended up kneeing McCabe in the stomach on the way down as well. Toronto ended up actually receiving the bulk of the punishment for the timeline of how things went down.

But Toronto needs to be concerned that McCabe is going to be out long term, and what moves they need to make in order to ensure they keep their defense as strong as possible, especially losing such an important piece.

So the team made a move to put Jake McCabe on the IR Monday, recalling Marshall Rifai from the Toronto Marlies in response.

This season, McCabe has one goal and 10 assists as well as 68 blocked shots in 36 games for the Leafs.

Rifai has been called up several times but hasn't played yet for the Leafs, and only has two NHL games in his career so far. No word on if he is going to play or merely an extra body.

McCabe is expected to miss a minimum of seven days, meaning he won't be able to play until the Maple Leafs' game against the Dallas Stars next Tuesday, if he even is healthy and ready to go by then.

Besides the obvious loss of a hard-hitting, shot-blocker with no qualms about dropping the mitts or dropping a dime in order to get the offense going, it means that Toronto loses a big part of their identity.

McCabe earned himself not only the respect of fans but of his head coach and management. Coming into his own he's proven not only can he be a reliable and consistent defender night in and night out, but he has untapped offensive potential that was briefly seen last season.

His pairing with Chris Tanev was one of the NHL's best defensive duos and a big part of how Toronto can consistently win games.

The team is relentless in the third period and often kicks things into high gear when it comes to keeping a lead and shutting down the opposition.

McCabe is a huge part of that, blocking lanes with every inch of his body and not afraid to lay his body on the line.

The scary part is that McCabe has already missed some time this season due to another head injury where he was struck by a puck in the side of the head.

He missed a couple of games before returning and was in good health otherwise, so seeing a second injury in the span of a month or so is concerning both for the short term and long term.

His absence means that the team is going to need to pick up the slack. Tanev is going to be the de facto leader of the blue line regardless of what Morgan Rielly might say, and guys like Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Simon Benoit need to step up both on offense and defense.

If Conor Timmins and Marhsall Rifai get looks, this is the perfect chance for them to show why they have what it takes to help the team in some of their toughest times.