John Klingberg is out for the remainder of the season for the Toronto Maple Leafs because of a hip injury.
The defenseman, who was placed on long-term injured reserve Nov. 23, will have surgery with a projected recovery time of 5-6 months.
"It will be at the end of the month December, looking like, and that will effectively end his season," Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving said Wednesday. "I'll have a better idea as we finalize what all is going to get done and ultimately once they do the procedure how long the rehab is going to be, but it's safe to say in the 5-6 month range."
Klingberg last played Nov. 11 in a 5-2 win against the Vancouver Canucks when he was plus-1 in 19:00, a day after missing his first game of the season in a 5-4 shootout win against the Calgary Flames.
The Gothenburg, Sweden, native traveled with the Maple Leafs for the 2023 NHL Global Series Sweden presented by Fastenal but did not play in either of Toronto's two games on Nov. 17 and 19.
"He's disappointed like any player, you're disappointed," Treliving said. "He was hopeful that this wouldn't be the case, but now once you make that determination and once it's finalized, you go to step two, which is getting through it, get through the procedure and get ready for rehab and go from there.
"The option that we looked at was patchwork, which he tried to do. This was really aggravated in the Florida game which was game four (Oct. 19) and then you saw him patchwork it for a few weeks so ultimately we wanted to take some time on how to get to the best outcome and ultimately this needs to be done."
Klingberg, who signed a one-year, $4.15 million contract with Toronto on July 1, has five assists and is minus-7 in 14 games this season. He had 33 points (10 goals, 23 assists) in 67 games with the Minnesota Wild and Anaheim Ducks last season.
"The injury was affecting him," Treliving said. "Any time you get to a point where you have to have a procedure done, it's significant. Those aren't just done for the sake of them getting done."
The Maple Leafs are also without defenseman Mark Giordano, who is week to week because of a broken finger, and Timothy Liljegren, who has not played since Nov. 2 because of a lower-body injury.
Toronto has used 10 defensemen this season, including Simon Benoit (11 games), Conor Timmons (six) and Max Lajoie (two). Morgan Rielly and TJ Brodie are the only two to play in all 23 games.
Klingberg's NHL salary cap charge will remain on long-term injured reserve for the remainder of the season, meaning the Maple Leafs will have more flexibility to add players through a trade.
"You've got clarity, which is really important versus saying is he or isn't he (coming back)," Treliving said. "We've gone through this period of time of is he or isn't he. You never like to see a player go down, but we do have clarity now on he is not going to be available to us, so it's next man up and the manager has to continue to look at our group of ways that we can help ourselves."
The Maple Leafs (13-6-4) are fourth in the Atlantic Division after a 4-3 win at the Ottawa Senators on Thursday.
