Maple Leafs’ mischievous plans ahead of epic playoff run exposed!

Pulling a Nikita Kucherov has become a new hockey term ever since the Tampa Bay Lightning appeared the screw the system when they needed the star player the most. You may remember how the Russian forward returned for the playoffs after missing the regular season while being placed on LTIR. The move enabled the Tampa Bay Lightning to maximize their salary cap spending, and according to the rules, Kucherov was eligible to return for the postseason. Since players are not paid in the playoffs, GM Julien BriseBois was able to re-insert Kucherov into the lineup, despite being 18 million dollars above the salary cap.

It got a lot of people talking and teams getting upset over the loop, however, the Toronto Maple Leafs might be the next ones to try to pull off a Kucherov ahead of the postseason.

The Vegas Golden Knights also experimented with the Kucherov plan in past season, and now Toronto could look into doing the same thing with captain Auston Matthews.

On Monday morning, Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube confirmed that Matthews would miss his second consecutive game after aggravating the injury that has troubled him all season long thus far last week. Latest reports open the possibility that Matthews could miss even more time as a result of this lingering injury.

Hockey Patrol recently suggested that Toronto could shut down Matthews for the remainder of the regular season, get some scoring depth en route towards the playoffs and then load him back into the lineup without having to respect the cap ceiling.

Fans have noticed that Matthews’ play has been hampered by this injury throughout the season despite his 11 goals and 12 assists for a total of 23 points in just 24 games. This lingering issue will continue to be a concern down the stretch and you have to wonder if the Maple Leafs might not consider shutting him down entirely until this injury situation is completely resolved for good.

And then pull that famous Kucherov move before the playoff run.