There no longer is any question about the status of Chris Tanev.
The Maple Leafs on Thursday placed the veteran defenceman on injured reserve, retroactive to Tuesday.
That night, Tanev suffered an upper-body injury during the second period of a 5-2 Leafs loss against the New Jersey Devils at Scotiabank Arena.
In a related move, the Leafs recalled defenceman Dakota Mermis from the Toronto Marlies of the AHL.
On Wednesday, Leafs coach Craig Berube would only say that Tanev was “questionable,” for the Leafs’ next game, in Buffalo on Friday against the Sabres. The clubs return to Toronto for a rematch on Saturday.
What does the Tanev injury mean for the Leafs?
There’s no silver lining here, let’s make that clear.
The Leafs have stumbled out of the gate with a 3-3-1 record in seven games and, while Tanev probably hasn’t been thrilled with his own play, the club needs him to get out of this early funk.
Instead, they’re going to have to go without the savvy Tanev, who epitomizes the play that Berube wants in the defensive zone, for the foreseeable future and try to get it right. While on injured reserve, Tanev will miss at least the Leafs’ next three games.
The Leafs didn’t have Tanev for seven games last season, his first in Toronto after he signed a six-year contract in free agency. They went 3-3-1 in those games.
With Tanev out, Berube had new defence pairs at practice on Thursday.
Brandon Carlo took the spot of Tanev with Jake McCabe, while Mermis was with Oliver Ekman-Larsson. The third pair had Simon Benoit with Philippe Myers.
It’s probable that Mermis was a placeholder for Morgan Rielly, who was on the ice earlier but was not a participant in practice.
More to come …
X: @koshtorontosun