Early Trading: How long will Leafs be without Tavares?

Gino Reda is joined by TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun to discuss the Maple Leafs placing John Tavares on the IR with a lower-body injury, his conversation with Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald about head coach Sheldon Keefe, and if the Predators are looking for buyers for Ryan O'Reilly.

Do we have any sense of how long John Tavares will be out?

John Tavares Toronto Maple LeafsPierre LeBrun: Officially, the Leafs have placed him on injured reserve, which means he'll be out for a minimum of one week. What I was told early on Wednesday night is that we might be looking at two-to-four weeks for Tavares to be out. 

There seems to be a little more optimism on Thursday morning that perhaps it could be less than that but really the key piece of information is that the Leafs will have a better idea in seven-to-10 days of where Tavares is at. Until then it's a bit of guess work.

My guess is that it'll be at least two weeks. We'll see where he's at in 10 days.

It's another key injury for a Leafs team that has struggled to put it's full lineup on the ice this year. Auston Matthews has been out for a couple of long stints. Obviously Jake McCabe recently. One day the Leafs would like to get their full lineup together.

In the meantime while we know and Leafs general manager confirmed, that he's on the lookout for a centre before the Mar. 7 trade deadline. The Tavares injury does not impact this at all. He's going to be back and whether the Leafs end up with a centre has no bearing on yet another injury up front. 

On this date last year, the New Jersey Devils were second last in the Metropolitan Division, today they're second in the conference. Any doubt of who GM Tom Fitzgerald  gives the credit for that turnaround?

Sheldon Keefe New Jersey DevilsLeBrun: There was zero hesitation. That was one of the first questions I had for him when we sat down on Wednesday. It was 'Where you start to explain the bounce back for this year?' Before my question was even done, he said Sheldon Keefe.

That coaching hire for him is the most important thing they did in the offseason. Fitzgerald didn't know Sheldon Keefe. He was really going on what he had heard and what he had seen in watching the Leafs over the years. The other thing to remember is that Tom Fitzgerald was like a dog with a bone in his pursuit of Keefe.

When the Leafs fired Keefe there was a thought for a few days that maybe Keefe would take the year to reset and decompress but Fitzgerald called or texted him every single day after Keefe got fired and would not let go. At the very least he wanted to have a chance to sell the Devils job to Keefe. 

The other things that's interesting to me is the way the Devils front office feels about their coaching hire and how Keefe has performed is so similar to what you hear from the Leafs and Brad Treliving about how Craig Berube has performed in his first year as head coach for the Leafs. It just goes to show you that sometimes it's just time. The Leafs knew they were firing a good coach in Keefe. But he had a number of cracks at it and couldn't get the team over the playoff hump and it was time for a new voice.

The Nashville Predators are a team that are out of the playoff hunt, realistically. Ryan O'Reilly still has this year and two more at $4.5 million. Are they looking for buyers between now and the trade deadline?

Ryan O'Reilly Fedor Svechkov Nashville PredatorsLeBrun: I made a few calls on that front today because Ryan O'Reilly is such a big name and believe me when I say that he's at the forefront of a lot of wish lists for some Cup contenders. We just talked about the New Jersey Devils. Tom Fitzgerald could not get into names, that's tampering, but what he did say is that the No. 1 objective at the deadline for New Jersey is to go acquire a centre. He's looking for a centre upgrade. 

We heard what Brad Treliving said this week. He confirmed that the Leafs are looking for a centre and so are several other contenders. They're all going to call Nashville on Ryan O'Reilly. Some of them have already started kicking tires. 

What I can tell you is that the Predators are not actively shopping Ryan O'Reilly. They're not trying to trade him. However, they are listening. They have to. Where they are in the standings, they're not making the playoffs. I guess I would put it this way. The predators are absolutely fine with keeping O'Reilly as part of a bounce back next year. Remember, the Predators are not looking to do a rebuild, they're looking to bounce back, kind of like New Jersey did, and get back in the playoff picture next year. O'Reilly could be a part of that. He's got two and a half years left on his contract but, and there's always a but Gino, if a team really steps up and makes Nashville think with a real offer then it's perhaps something the Predators would look at. 

That's why it's not impossible that O'Reilly could get moved and what I would say to that is, don't go to the Predators with a draft pick offer. Be serious with your offer if you're going after Ryan O'Reilly. 

O'Reilly does not have no-trade protection but there's sort of a verbal understanding between his camp and the team of 'We're going to treat you with respect. We're going to keep you informed of things. Let's see where this goes.' So it could be interesting.