Toronto Maple Leafs place Mitch Marner on the LTIR

Mitch Marner has been rehabbing the high-ankle injury that he suffered a few weeks ago against the Boston Bruins, and it appears that the Leafs have taken advantage of the time it has taken for him to recover, placing him on LTIR in order to free up some cap space to call up players ahead of the playoffs.

As Elliotte Friedman points out, Marner is eligible to come off of LTIR and could play as early as this week.

There is really no rush to bring Marner back, given the Leafs continue to have moderate success without him and remain in the playoff picture. Having his cap relief on LTIR could also give the Leafs some room to make some call-ups during the last few games of the season.

Marner was a bit coy with his response to his injury earlier this week, so we will see how his response to being placed on LTIR is.

We will see what happens later this week when the injury picture is more clear.