First, and most importantly, star forward Auston Matthews won’t play this week as he continues to recover from off-season wrist surgery. After sitting out all of the team’s pre-season games, the 24-year-old won’t be ready for game one of the regular season after all. In the perspective of a long 82-game grind, erring on the side of caution with Matthews’ recovery is rarely a bad idea.
Next, Ilya Mikheyev will need thumb surgery and is likely to miss about eight weeks. The 27-year old was injured in Saturday’s preseason finale against Ottawa, and his absence could keep players like Michael Amadio and Timothy Liljegren in the lineup.