Leafs’ Marshall Rifai placed on IR, week-to-week with lower-body injury
The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced that defenseman Marshall Rifai will be placed on injured reserve and will be week-to-week with a lower-body injury.
It’s unclear what the cause of the injury was, as Rifai played the entirety of Tuesday’s 6-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, getting a shift as late as the 19:36 mark of the third period. He was at morning skate ahead of Thursday’s 5-4 win over the New York Rangers, but left early, with Leafs head coach Jim Hiller telling the media that he was “dealing with something”. Rifai was also not present for warmups for Thursday’s game, confirming his absence, and then the team announced the injury after the win.
Rifai’s week-to-week timeline indicates that he won’t be available for the upcoming road trip in the Northwest, although it’s unclear how much time he’ll miss beyond that. His IR placement also confirms that he will miss the next three games, unless the placement was retroactive to his last instance of game action on Tuesday, then it would just be the upcoming two before he’s eligible to be taken off IR.
Rifai is mainly a regular for the Leafs’ AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, but was on the NHL roster as an injury replacement for Chris Tanev, who is also week-to-week. Rifai only managed to get into two games before sustaining the injury, scoring his first career NHL goal in Tuesday’s win. He had also gone pointless in three AHL games with the Marlies.
With Rifai and Tanev out, the Leafs will likely roll with the six-man defense corps of Nick Blankenburg, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Jake McCabe, Darren Raddysh, Morgan Rielly and Troy Stecher for the most part. That said, Toronto now only has those six defensemen on their NHL roster, so they will likely recall one or two defensemen from the AHL. Cole McWard, Dakota Mermis, Phillippe Myers and William Villeneuve are the only defensemen on the Marlies with previous NHL experience, although 2024 first-round pick Ben Danford could also be an option.
The Leafs are currently off to a solid start with a 6-4-2 record. They’ll look to build on their three-game win streak when they visit the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET.