The Leafs have decided to clear another veteran spare part from the roster, as forward Tim Connolly has been placed on waivers.
Eyebrows were raised when Connolly did not suit up for the Leafs open practice at the ACC this morning and shortly after, TSN's Darren Dreger reported that the Leafs intended to place him on waivers.
This is likely the Leafs being proactive, opening up roster spots and using one of their two compliance buyouts, as New York did with defenseman Wade Redden and Montreal did with Scott Gomez yesterday.
Cap room is not a consideration here, as the Leafs would only get $900,000 cap relief by demoting Connolly to the minors and none if they use the buyout, but they are well under the $70 million limit.
The main reason for this move is the same as the trade of Lombardi yesterday. The Leafs will be playing a more aggressive and defensive oriented game under coach Randy Carlyle and smallish speed demons like Connolly and Matthew Lombardi simply do not fit with that kind of team.
These moves to subtract Lombardi and Connolly virtually guarantee that Nazem Kadri, Leo Komarov and Matt Frattin will make the 23 man roster.
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A note about the Lombardi trade from last night, the Leafs receive a conditional 4th round pick in 2014, that could become a third rounder if Lombardi re-signs with Phoenix after the season. The Leafs are only paying the $500,000 signing bonus of the last year of the contract, so Toronto clears $3 Million in cap space with the deal
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The Leafs placed three players on waivers yesterday, Mike Mottau, Ryan Hamilton and Keith Aucoin for the purpose of sending them back to the Marlies, but whil Mottau and Hamilton cleared, Aucoin was claimed by the New York Islanders.
The 34 year old Aucoin was the Marlies leading scorer, with 10 goals and 27 assists in 34 games.
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