- John Chayka says Max Domi will not be ready when Maple Leafs camp opens and remains out indefinitely
- Chayka says Domi wants to explain the situation himself in the near future
- Read below for the better news the Leafs GM had on Chris Tanev
Max Domi will not be on the ice when Toronto opens camp next week.
Maple Leafs general manager John Chayka gave his first public read on the winger’s situation in an interview with Joshua Clipperton of The Canadian Press on Friday, and it was not encouraging.
“Max is going to come and be evaluated. He’s not going to be ready to start training camp. He’s going to be out indefinitely. At the right time in the near future, he wants to address it himself, and I think that’s best for him to do.”
That last line is the part worth holding onto. Toronto has never said what Domi had done or what went wrong, and now the player himself plans to fill in the blanks.
The club announced on May 25 that complications had come up after a procedure to fix something Domi played through all of last season. Nothing beyond that has come from the team since.
Nick Alberga of Leafs Morning Take reported Wednesday that camp and the start of the schedule were both out of reach, which Chayka has now put on the record:
Domi is heading into year three of a four-year, $15 million deal off a rough season, with 36 points (12 goals, 24 assists) in 80 games and a minus-29 rating.
The cap math around him is not small either. Toronto sat above the ceiling earlier this week, and parking Domi on long-term injured reserve once the season starts is the cleanest way out of that, a wrinkle we broke down when the first report landed.
There was one piece of good news out of the same call. Asked about Chris Tanev, who got into just 11 games last season, the GM said the defenseman is in good shape heading into medicals.
“We never clear a player until the medicals. (Tanev) will come and get his medical and be cleared to play at that point, is our expectation. Feels great. Ready to get started.”
Chayka said it on a video conference call with Mats Sundin, the senior executive adviser hired alongside him in the spring.
A healthy Tanev matters to a blue line that lost him for most of last year. Domi talking about his own surgery is the next thing to watch, and Chayka made it sound like that day is coming soon.
