Sheldon Keefe confirms Maple Leafs defenseman Justin Holl is out.

Justin Holl is on the sidelines.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 2 years ago
Sheldon Keefe confirms Maple Leafs defenseman Justin Holl is out.
Alan Schwartz/CSM/Zuma

The Toronto Maple Leafs are having a rough start to their regular season on the injury front with multiple players on the sidelines already and, as we reported earlier today, that unfortunate trend is already having serious ramifications for the team in terms of the salary cap.

The latest bit of news comes to us directly from Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe who helped clarify some early rumblings that were making the rounds this morning. It was National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman who first hinted at the fact that Holl may have been injured, something he believed contributed to the situation we mentioned regarding the salary cap. As it turns out Holl isn't injured, but the alternative might not be any better.

According to a report from TSN's Mark Masters, the Leafs head coach has informed him that while Holl isn't injured he is currently out with an illness. Under normal circumstances that would not be a particularly serious issues, however we now live in a post pandemic world and any sign of an illness is treated extremely seriously for obvious reasons.

The Leafs are doing the same in this case and, again according to Keefe, the team is currently awaiting the results of a PCR test to determine whether or not covid may be a factor in Holl's current illness. If the PCR test does indeed come back positive for covid it will have significant ramifications for the Leafs and for Holl in the short term, especially considering that the Leafs are already in salary cap limbo after losing several players already this early in the season.

Holl has taken on a bigger role as of late for the Maple Leafs, but he hasn't had the best start to the season leading up to this illness. Over two games the veteran blue liner already boasts a plus minus rating of -3 on the season and has yet to register a point for the Leafs. Hopefully the extra time off he will now get as a result of this illness will allow him to reset things a little bit before he does eventually return to the lineup.

Stay tuned for more details.

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