What Maple Leafs GM John Chayka had to say about team’s injury timelines

By the time the Maple Leafs get home from their four-game road trip, reinforcements will have begun arriving.

General manager John Chayka is sharing some optimism after a couple of summer setbacks were followed by hard-rock defenceman Chris Tanev and No. 2 centre John Tavares both getting hurt earlier this month, then two other blue-liners in Nick Blankenburg and Marshall Rifai.

Who could get back to the lineup first?

The quickest return will be bottom-six winger Dakota Joshua. After a four-game conditioning stint ended with the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies, he’ll be up “in the next day or two,” Chayka told reporters in Calgary before the Leafs chased a potential fifth straight win.

Joshua exited training camp for a stint on injured reserve with a core muscle injury, but continued practising. In his place, Chayka and new head coach Jim Hiller have rebuilt the fourth line around Teddy Blueger, Brandon Duhaime and Zack MacEwen, while getting mileage out of Marlies call-up Vinni Lettieri last week. So Joshua, a holdover from previous GM Brad Treliving, faces a battle for ice time.

What’s the latest on Tanev?

The sight of Tanev at practice on Monday in a red no-contact sweater heartened the team that activation from his week-to-week status is near. Chayka hasn’t gone into detail about the upper-body injury that felled the 36-year-old six games into the NHL schedule.

“He’ll get back in practice here shortly, hopefully, then he’ll progress to return to play,” Chayka said. “All the diagnosis and everything we heard was really positive and optimistic.”

Chayka seemed to brush off concern that Tanev’s all-in approach, shot blocks and physicality are bound to land a player of his age on the sidelines again before long.

“That would be like a crystal ball kind of thing,” Chayka said. “Our doctors are confident in the diagnosis and the treatment plan and he’s responding well, no different than any other player that returns to play.

“You’re always worried about re-injury, but we’ll get to a point where we feel really good about it. We’ll test it as much as we can in practice and then it’s about going out and playing.”

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Should recent trade rumours be believed?

Many expected Chayka to ramp up his early-season trade talks because of the hole Tanev leaves, though as always stay-at-home defencemen are the NHL’s hard-to-get commodity next to quality goaltending. That should not be ignored by the Leafs, even if they’ve done a nice job during their most recent string of wins using Tanev’s partner Jake McCabe in a shutdown role with Darren Raddysh, with huge contributions from Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Morgan Rielly and Troy Stecher.

After Tanev came week-to-week injuries to newcomer Blankenburg and the toughest to endure — another setback for Rifai, who’d broken his wrist a year earlier while on the cusp of making the Leafs.

“There’s no doubt we need to improve our defensive play overall to reach our ultimate goals,” Chayka added. “But I don’t think a transaction is necessarily always the way to improve. We’ve seen a lot of internal improvement already. And I think defensive play is a five-man structure unit, our decision-making, puck management, forwards tracking back, coaches implementing their systems and creating more comfort with that. We’ve seen a lot of progress organically with all of that.

“My job is always to look to improve the team if possible and we’ll continue to evaluate the market and see if there’s an opportunity.”

Where does Chayka rate prospect Ben Danford?

Other teams will no doubt be inquiring about the first-round pick the Leafs hope will one day round into their desired defenceman: Ben Danford, who is in his first full year with the Marlies.

“I love he’s in the American league, won a championship there last year, which I think gives him a lot of good runway,” Chayka said. “He’s with (Marlies assistant) Mark Giordano, who’s a great developer.

“As we think about it more broadly as an organization, especially the defence, he’s a prospect that could play 10 or 15 years for us.

“For us, it’s about the long term, making sure that if and when he does get called up he’s ready and in position to help us win at the NHL level. Right now, he’s doing a great job playing big minutes in all situations, developing and evolving in his game. I got a chance to go see him play. He was really positive with his progress.”

That said, Chayka made a mischievous closing remark to the gathered media that he’d not rule out another shocker in the manner of his Kirill Marchenko-for-Matthew Knies swap.

Will there be a Tavares sighting soon?

Regarding Tavares, Chayka said the alternate captain is training on his own after a lower-body mishap.

“He’s a pretty unique athlete, very attuned to his body and what he needs to do,” Chayka said. “He’s not yet at a point where he’s skating with the team. That would be kind of the next step.”

Forward Max Domi’s recovery from complications following off-season surgery, believed to be for a back ailment, remains a mystery, but Chayka shared that he’s skating, though not expected to join team activities for a bit.

The GM continues to insist the surgery saga is one that Domi should tell the public on his own at a time of his choosing. Domi had 36 points in 80 games last season with no outward signs of discomfort.

Lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby

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