Breaking: Maple Leafs' Auston Matthews to miss rest of season with MCL tear

The word has come down from the Toronto Maple Leafs following an MRI on Friday afternoon for captain Auston Matthews. He has a Grade 3 MCL tear plus a quad contusion and is done for the season.

Auston Matthews will miss the remainder of the 2025-26 season with a grade 3 MCL tear and quad contusion. pic.twitter.com/FjZEvwPN31
— TheLeafsNation (@TLNdc) March 13, 2026

The injury was suffered Thursday night when Radko Gudas delivered a brutal high-speed knee-on-knee hit on Matthews.

Actually a disgusting hit by Gudas.

How is this thug a captain in the NHL? Actually disgraceful.

pic.twitter.com/kueYab8Gez
— PuckEmpire (@puckempire) March 13, 2026

Gudas was given a game misconduct and a five-minute major for kneeing, after this vicious, intentional attempt to injure.

The Anaheim Ducks defenseman had a hearing, by phone, with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety and was handed a five-game suspension. More on that here.

The Leafs can now go all-in on tanking to try to get back their top-5 protected first-rounder from the Boston Bruins in this year's stocked NHL Entry Draft. According to The Athletic’s “macro data” guru, being without their best player for the last 16 games of the year means that Toronto's chances of picking in the top five now jump from 12.7% to 19.6%.

The Leafs are currently sitting with the 8th-worst record in the NHL with 67 points.

The team says that Matthews will be reevaluated in two weeks, but regardless, his 2025-26 season is done. He finishes with 27 goals and 53 points in 60 games. Those are all his worst-ever marks in 10 NHL seasons.