Matthews discusses why he waited to have wrist surgery
During an interview on the 31 Thoughts Podcast with Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek, Auston Matthews talked about why he waited until August to have his wrist surgery. The good news for Maple Leafs is that Matthews should be ready to go when they take on the Montreal Canadiens to open the 2021-22 season.
The wrist was causing Matthews problems throughout the 2020-21 campaign, despite that, he managed to lead the NHL in goals with 41.
"I was able to kinda get it calmed down a little bit," Matthews explained. "So, after the season we went through that whole process to just kind of see how it goes and see if it feels any better."
When Matthews headed home to Arizona, he went through his normal on-ice regime, and his wrist was clearly bothering him to the point where he decided to opt for surgery on August 13th.
«It just didn't feel right, so I decided to get another opinion and imaging and stuff like that and clean it up a little bit,» Matthews said. «It's nothing serious. So I'm happy we got it done.»
The original timeline for his recovery was six weeks, which will have him ready for just shortly after training camps open. But as mentioned, Matthews expects to be ready for their October 13th season opener against the Canadiens.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mikko Rantanen | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Jake Debrusk | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Dylan Guenther | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Connor McDavid | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Jack Eichel | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Brock Nelson | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Clayton Keller | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Anthony Cirelli | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Jonathan Drouin | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Roman Josi | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Kirill Marchenko | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Kyle Palmieri | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Artemi Panarin | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Evan Bouchard | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Leon Draisaitl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Matt Duchene | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 21 | 17 | 4 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 20 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 30 | |
Devils | 23 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 30 | |
Hurricanes | 20 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 29 | |
Golden Knights | 21 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 20 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 27 | |
Flames | 21 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 27 | |
Stars | 19 | 13 | 6 | - | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 19 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||