Leafs’ Chris Tanev may miss rest of regular season with groin injury

Whether the Toronto Maple Leafs make the playoffs or not, they might have to get there without Chris Tanev, as the veteran defenseman might miss the rest of the regular season due to a groin injury, according to The Fourth Period’s Dave Pagnotta.

Some tough #LeafsForever news: Chris Tanev's regular-season may be over. Per sources, Tanev is meeting with a surgeon in the coming week to determine next steps. If they move forward with surgery, he is expected to be out until late-April/early-May.

— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) January 4, 2026

Tanev is meeting with a surgeon in the next week to determine his next steps for recovery with the injury. Should he go forward with the surgery, he is expected to be out of the lineup until late April or early May, which would mean that the Leafs likely wouldn’t see a return until the playoffs, should they make it.

Tanev sustained the injury during the Leafs’ 3-2 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings on December 28th, although the actual cause of the injury is not known. He was initially expected to miss significant time, but the exact timeline for return was not known until right now.

Tanev has dealt with a plethora of injuries this season, as he had only played in his third game since missing 27 of the last 28 games with an upper-body injury. While Tanev has dealt with injuries for a fair amount of his career, he had never missed this much time in one season since he had only played 42 games in the 2017-18 season with the Vancouver Canucks.

The injury is a big blow to a Leafs lineup which has struggled defensively, as they sit 17th in the league in 5v5 expected goals against per 60 minutes at 2.74. With Tanev, Brandon Carlo and even depth option Dakota Mermis out of the lineup, the Leafs have gotten by with a top four of Morgan Rielly, Jake McCabe, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Troy Stecher, but haven’t been able to fill out the bottom of the lineup, with their options being Simon Benoit, Philippe Myers and Matt Benning.

In 11 games this season, Tanev had just two assists.

Tanev is in the second year of a six-year contract with a $4.5 million cap hit. Many expected the contract was signed with a lengthy term to keep his cap hit down, with the intention for him to eventually be placed on long-term injured reserve in the final years, but it’s possible that we’ve already reached that point.