The telephone rings and Joffrey Lupul, who normally answers, doesn’t.

A message is left but it is not returned.

An agent who has represented him on occasion hasn’t heard from him in months.

Some say the injured Maple Leaf is in California. Some joke that he is stashed somewhere on what is now called Robidas Island, the place where fallen Leafs go to disappear.

What isn’t funny is this: Quite likely, at the age of 33, after 701 NHL games, Lupul has played his last game. Unless there is some quirky salary cap financial reason to do so, he won’t be traded on Wednesday. His contract expires at the end of next season. He won’t be claimed in the Las Vegas expansion draft even though his salary dips to $3.7 million (cap hit is still $5.2 million).

The Leafs have paid him this season and will pay him next season to go away and not be heard from. Essentially, they have bought his silence.

In August, the last time I spoke with Lupul on the phone, he told me he wanted to play. He still considered himself a hockey player. He sounded enthusiastic. He wasn’t ready for retirement. I think it’s the last interview he gave on the subject.

At his absolute best, Lupul scored 103 points in a 110-game span with the Leafs over three seasons. That shouldn’t be forgotten in this year that he has been pushed away.

THIS AND THAT

Lupul’s career highlight other than being chosen for an NHL all-star game: He scored nine goals in the playoffs as a 21-year-old with the Anaheim Ducks ... Asked a pro scout about Lupul. His answer: “It’s become a very fast league, he’s not a fast player.” ... It’s odd to hear some of the Leafs players refer to Auston Matthews as Mats. If you’ve been around Leafland long enough, when you hear Mats, you think Mats Sundin. New nickname please. Something hockey original, like Matty ... The price to trade for pending free agent defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk is too high. The price to sign him long term is even more expensive ... Have to wonder a little about Shattenkirk when he had a chance to play for a contending roster in Tampa Bay for $6 million a year over seven years and he turned it down. Never mind where the Lightning are now: A defence with Viktor Hedman, Anton Stralman and Shattenkirk would be Blackhawks-like ... Asked a Leafs front office man what to expect from Toronto on trade deadline day: “A lot of phone calls,” he said, “probably no trades.” ... Mark Scheifele was the seventh pick in the 2011 NHL Draft. If you had a draft do-over, he’d go first. And somewhere, Dale Hawerchuk, his junior coach and mentor, is smiling. Scheifele was rated as the 16th best North American player by the NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau. Six spots behind Scheifele on that list: Leafs draft bust Tyler Biggs ... Listed 193 on that list: A 5-foot-6, 137-poundforward name of Johnny Gaudreau ... The breakdown on Patrick Marleau, still scoring at 37: Eight 20-plus-goal seasons. Six 30-plus goal seasons. One 40-goal season. Two Olympic gold medals. Is that a Hall of Fame career?

HEAR AND THERE

When Jared Sullinger left Toronto for the NBA all-star break, he turned to an ACC worker and said: “See you next week. Or maybe not.” He knew he was gone. Sullinger, a bust of a free agent signing by the Raptors, has since been let go by Phoenix ... Masai Ujiri, great trader, wonderful man, so-so in the free agent market ... The NBA needs to find a better way to have bought-out players distributed to teams. To have players let go and wind up in Cleveland is just bad business. It should work more like waivers — worst team gets first shot. It’s not right that Deron Williams and maybe Jose Calderon will end up with the Cavs ... P.J. Tucker is not the first Raptor to have a second session with the NBA team. Antonio Davis, Tracy Murray and Oliver Miller all had more than one stint with the Raps ... The best sign on Friday night at Air Canada Centre: “Ibaka To The Future.” ... This is all I’m worried about with the Blue Jays. The health of their starting pitchers. Starting performances of first baseman, left fielder and right fielder. Striking out too much. No real speed. Overall team athleticism. Bullpen after Roberto Osuna. Defensive depth behind Russell Martin. Management believing in Justin Smoak and Melvin Upton Jr. Other than that, all is well ... My life has been sufficiently enhanced now that baseball has removed the pitches from the intentional walk. Now to decide: how to celebrate 20 additional seconds in my life ... Don’t know who will end up with free agent broadcasters Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole, but whomever does is fortunate. They’re that good ... The Raptors need to finish top 3 in the conference to avoid a second round playoff matchup with Cleveland. Unless you’re among those who believe, it’s better to get the Cavs early, rather than late.

SCENE AND HEARD

The Leafs can’t be happy with the development of their minor league defencemen. Why else would the Marlies fire veteran assistant coach Gord Dineen in mid-season? “An organizational decision,” I was told... My top 10 most entertaining players in the NHL: 1. Connor McDavid; 2. Patrick Kane; 3. Vladimir Tarasenko; 4. Erik Karlsson; 5. Johnny Gaudreau; 6. Brent Burns; 7. Sidney Crosby; 8. Alexander Ovechkin; 9. Mitch Marner; 10. Mikael Granlund ... Quick advice for scoring leader McDavid: Shoot more. Be more selfish ... Heard the Auston Matthews rap song. It ain’t ‘Clear the track, here comes Shack.’ And not even close to Johnny Bower’s hit, Honky the Christmas Goose ... This is still weird: The Leafs highest paid player remains Nathan Horton at $5.3 million a year, with three years left on his deal ... The Leafs know if they waive defenceman Alexey Marchenko, there are a number of teams ready to claim him. Which is why they won’t consider waiving him, whether he’s playing or not ... Anaheim has traded for forward Patrick Eaves but the Ducks are still dangling one of their depth young defenceman in exchange for a forward of consequence. GM Bob Murray has the deepest defence in his system of any team in hockey ... Last season, Michael Grabner scored nine goals on 116 shots with the Leafs. With his first 116 shots in New York this season, 24 goals ... Another old wrestler, just hanging on: Vader, former star of Boy Meets World.

AND ANOTHER THING

What an inspiration to hear Jerry Howarth’s familiar voice back calling Blue Jays games on radio after his recent bout with cancer. Just felt right ... It’s sure looking as though Jim Popp will be introduced as general manager and Marc Trestman as head coach of the Argos sometime this week. My last communication with Trestman: “Nothing to report at this time,” he said ... Tough time for the Getzlaf brothers. Ryan has 11 goals, after scoring just 13 last year. Brother Chris is still without a CFL contract ... If you don’t know the name Bernie Custis, you should. Read this if you get a chance https://tinyurl.com/gly95x3 ... I really believed Brooks Laich would have some kind of leadership mentor role with the Leafs. But he has no role at all, with the Leafs or the Marlies. Somebody doesn’t care for him ... The best NHL rookie nobody talks about: Sebastian Aho of the Carolina Hurricanes ... What the NHL needs: another team in Atlanta. The Flames moved to Calgary. The Thrashers moved to Winnipeg. The new Atlanta team could move to Quebec City ... A Leo Cahill update: The old coach is in a rehab centre outside Atlanta after abdominal surgery. He was taken outside by his family for the first time on Thursday after eating his first meal in days. He’s 88 years old ... Remember when Canadian goaltending was a concern? Now we have Carey Price, Devan Dubnyk, and Braden Holtby. Probably the three best goalies in the NHL ... I have no Academy Award to hand out but the movies I enjoyed most in the past year were Hidden Figures and Lion ... Have to wonder how long Jonathan Bernier will remain an NHL goaltender ... Happy birthday to Ric Flair (68), Kelly Gruber (55), Joey Mullen (60), Gary Doak (71), Josh Towers (40), Jacob Trouba (23) and Marshall Faulk (44) ... And, hey, whatever became of Danny Markov?

STAR STRUCK

The status of Kyle Lowry is confusing and confounding, even if no one is to blame here.

From the outside the story seems a little suspicious and a touch plot twisting, with dots not necessarily connecting.

Lowry hurt his wrist playing against Charlotte in the final game before the all-star break. Nobody apparently thought much of the injury to further investigate. Lowry then went to New Orleans for the NBA all-star game, placed last in the three-point shooting competition, played golf on Sunday morning and then played 18 minutes in the all-star game, hitting seven of 11 shots, and scoring 19 points.

Then he went off for a Caribbean vacation of a few days.

When he came back to Toronto, Lowry was absent from practice. The Raptors didn’t really explain why he wasn’t there.

Then on game day, Friday night against Boston, suddenly he was announced out of the lineup for the game against the Celtics, and maybe a week. Maybe more.

If Lowry needed to heal after the Charlotte game, he shouldn’t have played in the all-star game, which might have brought clarity to a situation seemingly in need of some.

RARE OCCURRENCE

To try to fully comprehend the impactful scoring seasons of rookies Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine, consider this: Before this season, of the top 30 rookie goal scoring seasons in NHL history only two of the leaders have come from the past 20 years.

Those two players: both of them first overall picks, happen to be named Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin.

Ovechkin scored 52 goals in 2005-06 and in the same campaign that Crosby scored 39. Since then, nobody came even close in the goal-scoring department.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon. With 20 or so games remaining, Laine has scored 30 goals with Winnipeg and Matthews has 28 in Toronto. Barring injury, both should end up somewhere between 35 and 40 goals. They’re not all-time numbers, but contextually they are.

They are the best scoring rookies in more than a decade, the obvious successors to Ovechkin and Crosby. Since entering the NHL, Ovechkin is first in goals scored, Crosby second.

A decade from now, the same status could be true of Laine and Matthews.

GLEE OVER 3-ON-3

I used to be a huge shootout fan.

When the NHL first began ending games with player shootouts in 2005, I would often flip, from channel to channel, on NHL nights searching for whatever shootout I could find.

Not anymore.

Now I’m a 3-on-3 overtime freak. I can’t get enough of 3-on-3. I could watch the Jonathan Drouin overtime goal over and over again.

So I wonder now, as 3-on-3 is so enlightening and the shootout seems a little old and dry, if the time hasn’t come to add five minutes to overtime. Go 10 minutes of 3-on-3 instead of five. Most overtimes would end before the shootout.

Give the fans five more minutes of overtime — and it won’t kill the players by doing so. Five additional minutes would add maybe 100 seconds of additional ice time to players of skill. That’s not going to interrupt anything.

And it would make the NHL that much more fun at a time when it needs more fun.

ssimmons@postmedia.com

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