Auston Mattthews, who probably wants to participate in the Four Nations tournament more then anyone else, is currently battling a lingering injury that is likely to linger throughout the season and appears to be headed to off-season surgery.

Given his importance to the Maple Leafs ensuring Matthews health is vital for their playoff success. So it all seems to be headed towards an inevitable clash. Should Maple Leafs tell him they do do not want him to participating in this tournament, or even go further and say we should put you on LTIR until to the playoffs? Aka: the Mark Stone Solution…

We obviously all want to see the best play the best in this tournament. But if I’m a Maple Leafs fan, I’d be really afraid of further injury due to the intensity of this tournament. This is not just any All-Star game. In many ways, this is why I prefer the old Canada Cup way of doing things. These kinds of tornaments are better either after the season or just before…. We all need to remember that John Tavrares incident where he got hurt playing in the Olympics and that really crushed the Islanders that season….

But it’s a hard dilemma because these things are obviously very important to the players, and they’ve gone so far as to negotiated these things into the CBA …. The The NHL realizes the upside as well and also obviously loves the spotlight. Best on best.

However, the owners, who need playoff revenue to see any kind of profit, look at these tournaments in a very very different way….

What say you?

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