The NHL head office has apparently heard enough about Robidas Island in Toronto.

After years of rumours about the Maple Leafs and exaggerated injuries, the league is investigating the medical status of Joffrey Lupul, who hasn’t appeared in a Leafs uniform since February of 2016.

Under strange circumstances, Leafs management stated that Lupul failed physicals both last September and then again earlier this month. But on the weekend, Lupul disputed that claim in comments made on Instagram. (He later deleted those posts.)

There’s been something fishy about Lupul’s situation the whole time, something I did my best to document here earlier this week. Now that the league is involved, we might get more answers.

Emphasis on might.

Here’s what we know about the independent review that will take place:

Lupul isn’t considered at fault here. This investigation is about whether the league believes the Leafs have misused the system by declaring a healthy player injured in order to get around the roster limit or salary cap. “Essentially it’s a safeguard in the CBA to make sure long-term injured reserve is not abused by the clubs,” one source said.

The league initiated this process. I’m told that this wasn’t a result of other teams complaining but directly because the league saw the allegations from Lupul on Instagram.

This isn’t the first time this has happened. One source called these medical reviews “common,” although it’s unclear what exactly that means. (Other sources disputed that these medical reviews happen regularly.) What’s interesting is that two are happening at the same time this year: One with Lupul and another with Marian Hossa in Chicago. With Hossa’s case, a lot of other teams complained the Blackhawks were getting cap relief.

These reviews are supposed to be completed before the season starts, so we should have more answers within the next 12 days.

(The Leafs declined comment on the situation on Thursday night.)

All this said, I’m told that even if the independent doctor rules there is something off with the medicals that doesn’t mean either player will necessarily return to the roster. What it could mean is that the team won’t be permitted to use long-term injured reserve to get cap relief from these contracts.

At the moment, the Leafs can easily become cap compliant even with Lupul’s full contract on the books. Obviously that isn’t ideal — having $5.25 million in dead cap space instead of a pile of money to spend during the year — but it doesn’t sound like there will be more ramifications than that from this review.

That could change if Lupul decides to pursue the issue. But he already said on Twitter that he doesn’t intend to seek a second opinion on his medical. Which is a good thing given the deadline to do so has already passed.