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The status of Dave Bolland is uncertain after the Leafs center suffered an ankle laceration in a 4-0 loss to the Vancouver Canucks at the Rogers Arena Saturday night, but even if the outlook is positive following the surgical repair late Saturday night, the expectation is that the two-time Stanley Cup winner will be out for several weeks.
Head coach Randy Carlyle following the game said that center Tyler Bozak had been placed on long term injured reserve(LTIR), which will keep the Leafs top line center out of the lineup until November 21 at the earliest, leaving Toronto with Nazem Kadri, Jay McClement and long time minor leaguer Trevor Smith as their top three centers.
The Leafs do not appear to have an answer within the organization to fill in the gap for almost a month while Bozak is on the mend. The Toronto Marlies are just as challenged up the middle as their parent club. According to Kyle Cicerella of Canadian Press, the Leafs believe that 21-year-old Greg Mckegg could be make the NHL with proper development, as well as young Andrew Crescenzi and Sam Carrick, but none are ready to make the jump now.
The Marlies signed 34-year-old Jerred Smithson to an AHL contract in October to provide some depth and experience, but the veteran NHLer who played 45 games with Florida and Edmonton in 2013 appears to be struggling with the speed of the AHL, let alone the NHL.
The only forward that can handle significant ice time at the NHL level on the Marlies currently is winger Josh Leivo, who scored Toronto’s only goal in a 2-1 overtime loss to Hamilton at Copps Coliseum on Friday night. If Leivo is recalled, that could mean that Carlyle may experiment with shifting a winger like Phil Kessel, James van Riemsdyk or David Clarkson to center on an emergency basis.
The only other option open to Leafs GM Dave Nonis is to add a player by unrestricted free agency, waiver claim or trade, as $3.375 Million cap space will be available when Bolland is placed on LTIR.
Veteran free agents like former Leaf Kyle Wellwood or Vaclav Prospal are available and could be stop gap possibilities, as well as trading with teams like Florida and Buffalo for rent-a-players such as Scott Gomez or Steve Ott, as both teams are open for business after getting off to slow starts.
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