Lupul: “A Bit of a Stretch” to Return This Year

When Lupul got hurt, we speculated this injury would mark the end of his season. There were only a few games left to play — mostly meaningless — with the outside shot he returned during the last week of the campaign. Today, Lupul told Kevin McGran of The Toronto Star that returning this year would be a stretch. Expect him to sit out the rest of the year, making him a must-drop in single-season formats.

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Joffrey Lupul will miss 3-4 weeks with a separated shoulder according to Jeff Marek, via Twitter. With only a month left in the regular season, you should probably only keep him if you have the IR slot (and if he is actually placed on IR). Tough break for the Leafs in such a crucial point in the season.

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In this evening’s 5-4 loss to the Boston Bruins, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost Joffrey Lupul to an upper-body injury. The cause of the injury appeared to be a hit from Bruins pivot David Krejci. Lupul was relegated to a little over eight minutes of ice time.

It is no secret that Lupul had been suffering from some sort of arm injury before today’s game. During the trade deadline it was publicly acknowledged that he was wearing a soft cast but with the Leafs in the playoff mix it was a now-or-never situation. One has to wonder how seriously he may have aggravated his wound by gritting through the pain.

According to Lance Hornby of The Toronto Sun, via Twitter, Lupul will not travel to Pittsburgh for tomorrow’s game. Check back for a further update from the team.