Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews out for rest of season due to knee injury

The Toronto Maple Leafs announced Friday that the team’s captain Auston Matthews will miss the remainder of the season after sustaining a Grade 3 MCL tear.

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews will miss the rest of the season after suffering a torn knee ligament in a game against the Anaheim Ducks, the NHL club said Friday. 

Matthews crumpled to the ice Thursday night after he was hit in the left leg by Ducks captain Radko Gudas in Toronto’s 6-4 win over Anaheim at Scotiabank Arena.

The Toronto captain suffered a Grade 3 tear of the medial collateral ligament and a bruised quadriceps muscle, the Maple Leafs said in a social media post.

Gudas, who was given a major penalty for kneeing and a game misconduct, was handed a five-game suspension Friday night by the league’s department of player safety.

Matthews will be re-evaluated in two weeks and an update will be provided at that time, the team said. 

Matthews has 53 points (27-26) this season for the Maple Leafs, who are 14th in the 16-team Eastern Conference standings with 67 points.

After the game, Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube called it “a dirty play.” 

Matthews has 53 points (27-26) this season for the Maple Leafs, who are 14th in the 16-team Eastern Conference standings with 67 points.

After the game, Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube called it “a dirty play.” 

“(The) league is going to obviously look at it and see what the suspension will be or whatever happens,” he said. 

Matthews, 28, ended a 12-game scoring drought earlier in the second period with a power-play goal. 

Gudas, 35, a hard-nosed defender whose hit ended Canadian captain Sidney Crosby’s Olympics in the quarterfinals while playing for Czechia, had a hearing with the NHL’s department of player safety on Friday. 

Gudas received a 10-game ban for a slash across the neck of Winnipeg Jets forward Mathieu Perreault during the 2017-18 season. He has also received suspensions for interference, an illegal check to the head and slashing since entering the league in 2012-13.

Matthews, the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, is the Maple Leafs’ all-time leader with 428 goals. He also has 352 assists in 689 career regular-season games. 

He served as captain of the American men’s hockey team that won gold last month at the Milan Cortina Olympics. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 13, 2026.