Injured Leaf projects to return against the Lightning, reveals how long his injury had actually hampered him before going on IR

Jarnkrok signed a 4-year deal with the Maple Leafs over the summer for a cap hit of $2.1 million. He was coming off an 8-year adventure with the Nashville Predators, where he scored 94 goals and 211 points in 508 games but consistently hitting or getting close to the 30 point plateau.

Jarnkrok was claimed in the expansion draft by the Seattle Kraken before being traded mid-season to the Calgary Flames. The Maple Leafs got somewhat of a discount for the versatile forward who struggled mightily during his time with the Flames.

He stated that he was dealing with the injury for awhile and sustained it during the team's "first trip". It only got worse over time, which might explain his troubling point production, where he scored 4 goals and 7 points in a 20 game stretch from the 22nd of October to the 30th of November.

Sheldon Keefe sounds excited for his return saying that "We missed him and you can just kind of see it in the practice. It makes a difference to me having him out there and it'll make a difference to our lineup as well."

He was seen at practice on the second line with John Tavares and Mitch Marner. When placed on that line earlier in the season, he produced 3 points in 4 games before the groin injury kept him sidelined for the last 2.5 weeks.