Nick Blankenburg Injury: Leafs Recall McWard and Mermis as Blue Line Thins

Nick Blankenburg injury: what we know

The Nick Blankenburg injury has pushed the Maple Leafs' blue line to the bottom of the depth chart. Toronto placed Blankenburg on injured reserve on Oct. 23 with an upper-body injury, one day after he left the 5-4 win over the New York Rangers following a hard third-period hit into the boards from Will Cuylle. Marshall Rifai went on injured reserve the same day with a lower-body injury. To replace them, the Leafs recalled defencemen Cole McWard and Dakota Mermis from the AHL's Toronto Marlies.

Blankenburg is listed as week-to-week, with no firmer timeline from the club. Putting him on IR right away, rather than waiting a day, means he cannot play for at least seven days from his last game, and that tells you Toronto did not expect him back for the start of the four-game western trip that opens tonight in Edmonton.

Our Rifai piece on Friday said the Leafs were heading west with six healthy defencemen. The Blankenburg news knocks that down to five regulars plus two call-ups. Through 12 games, Toronto has had four defencemen hurt: Chris Tanev, Rifai and Blankenburg are all on IR, and Jake McCabe missed part of a game after a high stick.

Who Toronto has left on defence

Here is the blue line the Leafs are taking to Rogers Place, with cap hits from our Leafs contracts page for the regulars. McWard and Mermis are on depth deals.

The handedness matters. Blankenburg is a right shot who had been playing the third pair, and Tanev is the only true shutdown right shot in the organization. With both out, McWard is the only right-handed option behind Raddysh and Stecher. Expect him to slot in with Ekman-Larsson, while Mermis is the seventh defenceman unless Jim Hiller wants a more veteran look.

Cole McWard and Dakota Mermis: who the Leafs called up

Cole McWard is a 25-year-old right-shot defenceman from Fenton, Missouri. He went undrafted, played two seasons at Ohio State and signed an entry-level deal with the Vancouver Canucks in April 2023. He has bounced through the Canucks and New York Islanders organizations before landing in Toronto's system. He has played nine career NHL games with one goal, and had three assists in his first five Marlies games this season, per Elite Prospects.

Dakota Mermis is a 32-year-old left-shot veteran who has played for Arizona, New Jersey, Minnesota and Utah. His career high is 47 games with the Wild in 2023-24, and Daily Faceoff lists him at four goals and 13 points in 78 career NHL games. He played 11 games for Toronto last season and scored once. He was left off the opening-night roster this fall and had one assist in seven AHL games before Friday's recall.

Neither player changes the ceiling of this defence. What they offer is legal bodies and, in Mermis's case, a player who knows the Leafs' system from last season. For a road trip with four games in eight days, that is the job.

How the injuries piled up

The pace of the damage is the story. Here is how October has gone on the back end.

McCabe was a full participant at the morning skate on Oct. 22 and played that night, which is the one piece of good luck in the list. Tanev travelled with the team for the western swing, per TSN, and skated on his own before Friday's practice. He remains week-to-week, and he has not played since Oct. 10. We broke down what his absence means in our Chris Tanev injury analysis.

Up front, John Tavares is still week-to-week with a lower-body injury and is not on the trip at all. He has not skated since he was hurt on Oct. 15. That is a separate problem, but it compounds this one: the Leafs are missing their best defensive defenceman and a top-six centre at the same time. Our piece on how the Leafs cover centre without Tavares still applies.

What it means against McDavid, Draisaitl and the West

The timing could not be worse. The trip opens against an Edmonton team that is 8-1-1, with Connor McDavid leading the NHL with 31 points in 10 games. Babcock has last change at home, and he will look for whichever pair has McWard or Mermis on it.

Hiller's realistic plan is to shorten the bench. That means more minutes for Raddysh and McCabe, who were the second pair against the Rangers, and for Rielly and Stecher. Stecher scored the winner on Thursday with 26.3 seconds left, but he is a third-pair defenceman playing top-four minutes. That is sustainable for a week, maybe two. It is not a plan for a month.

After Edmonton, Toronto plays at Calgary on Oct. 26, at Seattle on Oct. 28 and at Vancouver on Oct. 31. None of those buildings will scare anyone the way Rogers Place does, but four road games with a patched blue line is how a three-game winning streak turns into a .500 month. Our Maple Leafs vs Oilers preview has the matchup details for tonight.

Our take: the injuries end the case for waiting

LeafsLurker argued on Oct. 8 that John Chayka was right to wait, but not for long before trading for a defenceman. That window is now closed. The Leafs have been without Tanev for two weeks, and three defencemen are now on injured reserve at once.

Chayka does not need a franchise defenceman for this. He needs one right-shot, top-four defender who can kill penalties and handle hard matchups, and he has the assets to get one: Colorado's 2027 first-round pick from the Nicolas Roy trade, plus prospects not named Easton Cowan, whom Toronto has reportedly taken off the table. The premium asset report we ran on Oct. 19 lays out what the market looks like.

The Hellebuyck trade on Oct. 23 also cleared the biggest name off the trade board. GMs who were waiting on that domino now know where the goalie market landed, and some of them will turn to the defence market next. If Chayka wants a deal before the rest of the league picks over the options, the next two weeks are the time.

What's next

The immediate questions are simple. Who plays with Ekman-Larsson tonight, and does Mermis or McWard draw in? Watch for Tanev's practice status on the trip: if he joins team drills in Calgary or Seattle, a return before the Nov. 8 home game against New Jersey becomes realistic. Under the seven-day IR minimum, Blankenburg's earliest possible return is the Oct. 31 game in Vancouver, and "week-to-week" suggests later than that.

Track every Leafs roster move on our players page. If the Leafs come home from this trip still running McWard and Mermis in the top seven, the conversation about Chayka's patience will get louder, and it should.