It’s been a rough go with the Toronto Maple Leafs for Joffrey Lupul. The 33-year-old left winger was acquired by the Maple Leafs back in 2011, but injuries have kept him from playing a full season since joining Toronto six years ago.
Joffrey Lupul accuses Maple Leafs of cheating on preseason physicals
The forward has failed his past two preseason physicals with Toronto, but said he’s “ready” to return.
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Since February 2016, Lupul has been sidelined by the Maple Leafs organization on the Long-Term Injured Reserve list after failing his preseason physical for two straight seasons. Over the weekend, however, Lupul has since said that may not be the case.
In an Instagram comment that has since been deleted, Lupul refuted the Maple Leafs medical examination that he was unfit to play.
In the comment, Lupul said: “Haha failed physical? They cheat, everyone lets them.” A secondary comment that was also deleted after the fact said: “I’m ready.. Just awaiting the call..”
The Maple Leafs have since refused to comment on Lupul’s accusations of cheating, and the NHL has stated they will not until they “know more.”
Why would the Maple Leafs do this?
Lupul is just one of many recent Maple Leafs to be sent to what Toronto fans call “Robidas Island.” The term comes from Toronto’s extremely brief stint with defenseman Stephane Robidas, who was signed by the team back in 2014 on a three-year, $9 million contract.
Robidas played only one year with the Maple Leafs, as a pair of leg fractures kept him out of the lineup for both the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons. His bad contract was then kept off the books because of LTIR, as the case has been for Nathan Horton, who hasn’t played a game of hockey since 2014, even though the Maple Leafs acquired him in the David Clarkson trade in 2015.
Jared Cowen, who was on the Maple Leafs roster from February 2016 to this most recent offseason, recently called out the team’s injury process after being acquired by Colorado on a PTO.
Lupul is another mainstay of “Robidas Island,” where fans believe general manger Lou Lamoriello “sends” injured players to make room for usable roster spots. That, it seems, is what Toronto gets out of the whole charade. The additional roster spots is what allowed the Maple Leafs to field a team of seven rookies last year, which included Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Connor Brown, Nikita Zaitsev, Zach Hyman and Nikita Soshnikov.
Of course, the Maple Leafs didn’t magically create seven roster spots out of thin air, but the loss of sure-fire veterans helped along the process that got Toronto to the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The additional cap space is also a nice bonus for the Maple Leafs. Besides Lupul and Horton on LTIR, the buyouts of Cowen and Tim Gleason with Phil Kessel’s retained salary from his trade in 2015 all add up. Toronto is spending a lot of money on players that won’t play for their team, but they’re still able to get under the salary cap anyway thanks to the use of LTIR.
Adding more fuel to the fire, Lupul was left unprotected by the Maple Leafs for June’s expansion draft. In the league’s official expansion draft rules, the NHL stated that players with “career-threatening injuries” cannot be exposed. While Lupul has had an expansive injury history, it was apparently not enough to keep him protected by Toronto.
According to Pierre LeBrun, Lupul can get a second medical opinion on his failed physical, but he has yet to do so. Lupul has put up 420 points in 701 NHL games, but he’s failed to crest the 70-game mark in seven seasons.
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