New Auston Matthews Injury Update, Latest News on Maple Leafs Star's Timeline to Return

Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews underwent successful surgery Thursday on his season-ending MCL injury, his team announced.

Matthews is expected to face a 12-week recovery time following the procedure.

The surgery took place one week after Matthews suffered a Grade 3 MCL tear and quad contusion on March 12 following a knee-on-knee collision with Anaheim Ducks forward Radko Gudas.

The Leafs announced on March 13 that Matthews would miss the rest of the 2025-26 season with the injury.

A 12-week recovery timeline would place Matthews' return in mid-June, likely about three months before the start of 2026-27 training camp.

Gudas was assessed a five-game suspension following the play, which Leafs head coach Craig Berube later said "didn't seem like enough."

Matthews will finish out the season having averaged fewer than a point per game for the first time in his career after recording 27 goals and 53 points in 60 games.

That marked Matthews' second straight relatively down season after a span of five straight 40-goal campaigns that included three Rocket Richard wins from 2019 to 2024.

Matthews recorded what was then a career low of 33 goals in 67 games during the 2024-25 season, after which he told reporters he'd been impacted by lingering injuries all season but expected to fully recover without surgery.

The Leafs will hope Matthews will have enough time to recover from his surgery this offseason in order to work toward bouncing back to his previous even-strength scoring dominance.

The news that Matthews would miss the rest of the 2025-26 campaign all but confirmed the lack of a playoff berth for the Leafs, who at 29-28-12 now sit 12 points back of a playoff spot with 13 games remaining.

The Leafs currently hold a first-round draft pick, but it will be sent to the Boston Bruins if it lands outside the top five as part of the conditions of the Brandon Carlo trade.

Toronto is currently most likely to earn the No. 7 pick, which would send the selection to the Bruins, per PuckPedia. How many games the team loses while Matthews begins his recovery could determine how big of a chance the franchise gets to add a first-round pick before their captain's return.