Maple Leafs Announce Details On Chris Tanev Injury Status
Leafs announce Chris Tanev is now considered “week-to-week” with an upper-body injury @TSN_Sports
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) October 15, 2026
What makes this difficult to swallow, if you're the Leafs, is that Tanev received a mere "bump" in front of the net in the first period against the Colorado Avalanche, the type of play that could happen 100 times in an NHL game. If this is where we're at with Tanev, it's a troublesome situation for the Maple Leafs' blueline.
Tanev missed all but 11 games last year after going down due to a combination of a concussion, a spine/core muscle injury requiring surgery, and a groin injury. And we all know what happened to the Leafs' defense last season. It was an abject disaster.
Earlier Thursday morning, Elliotte Friedman reported that GM John Chayka wasn't thinking about doing anything drastic on that front as far as an acquisition, but preferring to see how the team weathers the storm on the blueline for the next week or so. But this news could bring about some more immediate action.
For now, the Leafs seem to be going with an 11-forward, 7-defence alignment to help cover themselves on the back end in Tanev's absence.
For now, Tanev has not been placed on LTIR.