Maple Leafs reveal worst-case scenario involving Colton Sissons

The Toronto Maple Leafs ended up with another long-term injury as Colton Sissons is out week-to-week as their list grows amidst a horrific start to the season.

Going without players like Morgan Rielly was hard enough for the Maple Leafs but now they are going to be down one of their key penalty-killers and defensive shutdown forwards for the foreseeable future.

Sissons out week-to-week as the Maple Leafs injury list grows

The team announced that forward Colton Sissons would be out week-to-week with a lower-body injury that he suffered on Saturday against the New Jersey Devils.

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He's just been added to the list of players who are currently out week-to-week which includes Marshall Rifai, Nick Blankenburg, and Kirill Marchenko and while Rielly is only day-to-day and should return at the end of the week - it's still a rough start 20 games into the season.

Sissons, 33, has six points in 19 games along with only 4 PIM, an even plus/minus, 11 blocks and 38 hits. He's also winning face-offs at a near 60% clip and is one of the team's key penalty killers and true shutdown forwards.

Maple Leafs' season could be over thanks to their injury issues

But as much as this season was exciting and hopeful it may as well be over. While there are still 64 games left in the season, there's a real shot that if the team doesn't pick things up now and finish with a strong November they could be out of the race early.

They are currently thinning on the blue line and one of their anchors just went down for an unknown amount of time. They have no money to make moves - even a decent call-up - and they are running low on options.

They have to make some type of move, and it's time to move on fromveterans like Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Dakota Joshua, and maybe even find a way for someone to take on Max Domi's contract. Anything they can do to open up space and find the right fits might be their saving grace.

It's certainly not going to give Auston Matthews a lot of hope for what's to come, and if they want to keep him around long-term they need to start proving that it's not just last season's results with a new coat of paint.

But until they get healthy and start fielding a roster that can actually stay on the ice and contribute? It's going to be a long, long season.

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