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The Toronto Maple Leafs confirmed what was widely suspected when John Klingberg was placed on LTIR last month, as GM Brad Treliving indicated that the injured defenseman will have hip surgery at the end of the month and will be out for the remainder of the season.
Klingberg was signed to a one-year, $4.15 million deal in July as a puck rusher who could supplant Morgan Rielly as the Leafs power play quarterback, but injuries plagued the 31-year-old in the preseason and after the regular season began in early October.
“I was hopeful this wouldn’t be the case, but now once you’ve made that determination, and once it’s finalized you go to step 2 and get through the procedure and rehab and go from there,” Treliving said.
With Klingberg’s season being over and on LTIR for the rest of the year, the Leafs now have more flexibility to bring in a replacement. Timothy Liljegren skated on Thursday and is inching towards a return later this month. There continue to be rumors that Treliving is interested in acquiring defenseman Chris Tanev from Calgary.
"We’ve got players that are coming back, it’s no secret that we’ve investigated what the market is, what those costs would be. Would we like to help ourselves there? Sure….But having said that, what’s the cost?” Treliving said. “(We've) got clarity, which is really important. We've gone through this whole time saying is he or isn't he. You never like to see a player go down, but we do have clarity now. He isn't going to be available for us, so it’s next man up and (I) have got to continue to look for ways we can help ourselves."
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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