Nick Robertson suffered a major injury in Sunday’s Toronto Marlies game, but we weren’t quite sure how bad it really was. The play in the game looked rather innocuous in the course of a hockey game; he collided with a player from the Manitoba Moose near the boards behind the net and fell awkwardly, but then you could see immediately he was in immense pain, and something was very wrong.

Now we have confirmation that it’s bad. He’s going to be out a long time for recovery; unable to play for the Marlies or the Maple Leafs probably until January.

A minimum of ten weeks takes him out of the game all the way to the last week of the year, December 27, so essentially he’s not playing hockey again until 2022.

Robertson previously had to go on injured reserve and sit out for weeks while on the Maple Leafs roster after he was injured in his very first regular-season Leafs game back in January. This is a terrible run of luck for him, and it certainly will have at least some impact on his long-term development as he will once again miss playing many actual games in the season.

While he was assigned to the Marlies to start this season, we believed there was a good chance he could be recalled at some point to the Leafs. Now the Leafs face the prospect of not having Robertson available as a first call-up option to fill any spots they may unexpectedly need on the wing. This throws yet another injury wrench into the organisation’s plans for this season after recently signed goalie Petr Mrázek was injured in his very first game.

Petr Mrázek is out, Michael Hutchinson is in, Jack Campbell has the net

The Leafs once again have to start the season quickly shuffling around players to fill surprise gaps in the roster.