Rumor: Frederik Andersen may be headed to injured reserve.

Although the Toronto Maple Leafs have not made any kind of official announcement regarding the status of starting netminder Frederik Andersen moving forward, there were signs on Monday morning that indicate he may in fact be headed to injured reserve.

The first hint came courtesy of the Toronto Maple Leafs themselves when they announced, via their public relations department, that 22 year old goaltender Ian Scott had be assigned to the team's taxi squad. Scott, the Leafs 4th round pick (110th overall) at the 2017 National Hockey League Entry draft, had previously been assigned to the Toronto Marlies.

Now that may not look like much on the surface, however there is a rule in place this season that mandates teams must carry a minimum of 3 goaltenders at all times due to the addition of the taxi squad to each team's roster. Many believe that Scott was reassigned to the taxi squad on Monday in order to allow the team to move Andersen to injured reserve, a move that would leave the Leafs with Jack Campbell, Michael Hutchinson, and the aforementioned Scott to fill those 3 mandatory spots on the roster.

Maple Leafs insider James Mirtle has indicated that it "sure seems like Andersen will be at least on IR here for a spell." Again this makes perfect sense when you consider the move to bring Scott up to the taxi squad today.

It seems extremely unlikely that Scott will get any kind of playing time and I suspect that instead the Leafs are going to ride the hot hand in Jack Campbell and give him a chance to show whether or not he can maintain his incredible level of play this season over a longer period of time, and with a heavier workload.

The Leafs still have several days off before they play their next game, so it may be some time yet before we get any kind of official confirmation in this regard. 

On a final note, several Leafs players were also absent from practice on Monday including Campbell, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Jake Muzzin, Justin Holl and of course Andersen but Leafs beat reporter Kristen Shilton suspects this may have been due to the long layoff between games and not due to any injuries or anything more serious.