TORONTO -- Auston Matthews traveled to Germany to visit a doctor as he continues to recover from an upper-body injury, but Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving insisted the center is progressing well and could play next week.
“(The trip was) more as a general checkup, but also to get some work done on his thing,”
Treliving said Tuesday. “It’s not alarming. It’s something we have been discussing knowing that he’s going to be getting this week (off), but we are hopeful that once we get through the week here he will be back up and skating and his return to play would be after that.”
Treliving declined to offer more specific information on the nature of the injury. Matthews is last known to have skated Nov. 9, though he has been continuing off-ice workouts.
“I’m protective of our players,” Treliving said. “We want to share as much as we can, but anything that may put the player in jeopardy, I’m not going to do that. There is not surgery or any speculation like that. We are in a good spot here where we are getting beyond it.”
Matthews will miss his seventh straight game Wednesday when the Maple Leafs host the Vegas Golden Knights at Scotiabank Arena (7:30 p.m. ET; TVAS, SN, SCRIPPS) but Treliving declined to rule him out for the following game, Sunday against the Utah Hockey Club.
“Maybe, maybe not (against Utah),” Treliving said. “We go to Florida after that, so that’s sort of where I feel more comfortable. Maybe Sunday, but probably after that on the road.
“We haven’t been trying to be cryptic with all this stuff. We’ve been calling him day to day because that’s what he’s been. We’ve looked at the schedule here and what we are trying to do is use this week and hopefully get this thing behind him.”
Despite making the trip to Germany for further consultation, Treliving said the Maple Leafs are pleased with how Matthews’ recovery process has gone.
“Nothing new; there’s been no setbacks,” Treliving said. “Everything has been actually going quite well. We are just trying to use the days we’ve got here with less games being played to try to get this behind us.”
Matthews, who won the Rocket Richard Trophy last season with a career-high 69 goals in 81 games, has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in 13 games this season. The individual production is unlikely to come close to matching that of last season, but Treliving said the lone objective at this point is to ensure he is healthy once he returns from the injury.
