Why Maple Leafs expect Max Pacioretty to be ready for playoffs

SAN JOSE — Before he could answer the question, the coach’s wide, sly grin tipped the answer.

How confident is Craig Berube that Max Pacioretty will be ready to suit up for the Toronto Maple Leafs come playoff time?

“Pretty confident,” Berube replied. A little chuckle. “Yeah, I’m pretty confident.”

Spoiler alert: Tom Hanks’s character eventually does get rescued from his lonely South Pacific landmass at the end of Cast Away.

Another spoiler: Pacioretty won’t be stranded on Robidas Island once the regular-season salary cap’s restrictions lift.

The oft-injured middle-six left winger suffered an undisclosed injury at practice following the 4 Nations Face-Off break. He was placed on injured reserve Feb. 28, then had his status changed to long-term injured reserve on March 7 — the same day cap-tight Toronto added Brandon Carlo and Scott Laughton at the trade deadline.

“Can’t tell you much,” said Pacioretty, when he last spoke publicly, following Feb. 26’s practice in Boston. “Just something that just popped up and have to take care of that and see how it responds here, I guess, the next couple days.”

Pacioretty has been skating regularly and rehabbing away from the main group. He looks like a man ramping up for action.

But short of waiving another depth player, GM Brad Treliving doesn’t have the financial wiggle room to activate Pacioretty and his $873,770 cap hit — even if the player were healthy.

Shifting his game to a more physical brand of hockey, the 36-year-old has battled multiple strains and spasms, scratches both healthy and unhealthy, in his commendable comeback bid for the Maple Leafs. His body has been through the wringer. Surely, a doctor would advise against contact sports.

Before this most recent stint on LTIR, Pacioretty played just enough (37 games) to achieve both of his games-played bonuses, which were triggered at the 10- and 35-game marks, bringing his earnings to $1.5 million.

The veteran has put together some effective stretches of hockey in Toronto.

His five goals and 13 points in limited use place him eighth in points per game (0.35) among Maple Leafs forwards with at least 10 appearances. And Steven Lorentz is the only player on the Leafs’ roster to have thrown more hits per 60 than Pacioretty (12.6) this season.

While Bobby McMann has added a jolt of speed and offence to the second line alongside John Tavares and William Nylander, Berube’s third line is still very much a work in progress.

A rested Pacioretty — who brings 78 games of postseason experience and now plays a heavy, Berube-friendly style — would certainly be an intriguing option come late April.

The catch is conditioning.

If Pacioretty is indeed activated for Game 1 following the regular-season finale, he will have spent 70 days between game action.

“Will he be up to speed?” becomes the followup question to “Is he healthy?”

(That same mystery will be at play in Edmonton, where Evander Kane — a more important winger enduring a much longer layoff — is expected to parachute in at the most important time.)

Perhaps the Leafs send Pacioretty down for a two-game AHL conditioning stint in advance of activation. Or maybe the bottom six clicks well enough over these last 11 games that Pacioretty gets reduced to an emergency option.

But judging by Berube’s smile, we have a sneaking suspicion that Pacioretty hasn’t played his last shift for the Leafs.

Maple Leafs projected lineup Thursday in San Jose:

Knies – Matthews – Marner

McMann – Tavares – Nylander

Laughton – Domi – Robertson

Lorentz – Kämpf – Järnkrok

Rielly – Carlo

McCabe – Tanev

Benoit – Ekman-Larsson

Woll starts

Stolarz